Conflict From Within
by Sharonlover
Summary: Another story complete. I would really appreciate reviews for the last chapter on the overall story. Thanks everyone and stay tuned for my next story. Please read and review. Sharonlover!
1. Default Chapter

Before I begin, I will say that Samus Aran and Metroid related characters or ideas belong to Nintendo and their respective affiliates.  
  
A/N: Before you begin to read this, please understand that unless you have read "Rebirth of a Legend", you may find yourself misunderstanding this story, as this is a direct sequel to "Rebirth of a Legend". As with all my stories, this one will follow my "Metroid Timeline".  
  
I hope you enjoy and please don't forget to read and review.  
  
Metroid Saga Timeline  
  
2023 - Samus Aran is born.  
  
2026 - Samus' parents are tragically killed on home colony of K2-L by a band of Space Pirates led by the infamous General Ridley.  
  
2032 - Bubblegum Crisis Events occur and the Knight Sabers are introduced.  
  
2039 - Samus Aran receives her power suit from the Chozos at the age of 16.  
  
2040 - Sharon Apple A.I. Program completed by the Macross Consortium. Macross Plus events occur and in the end, Sharon Apple's singing career is through, tragically sending her into an outrage. She soon changes her name to "Mother Brain".  
  
2041 - The original Metroid adventure begins with Samus' first real bounty mission to the Planet Zebes in an effort to thwart the Space Pirates and their leader Mother Brain.  
  
After her battle with Mother Brain, Samus comes across a Space Pirate vessel orbiting Tallon IV. After investigation she finds Space Pirate activity on a mutated Metroid called "Metroid Prime".  
  
2042 - The saga continues with Metroid II. Samus is sent to SR-388 to eradicate all Metroid life; however, she saves one Metroid hatchling out of compassion and takes it to Ceres Space Colony for research purposes.  
  
2043 - The third installment of the Metroid saga, Super Metroid. Samus chases Ridley back to Zebes to find the torn apart planet rebuilt for Space Pirate Activity. Mother Brain and company are found alive and at the Metroid cloning again.  
  
2044 - Samus Aran teams up with the Knight Sabers to help destroy the Metroid fused with boomer threat. (Alternate Universe)  
  
2044 - Lana Aran is born.  
  
2047 - Metroid Fusion events occur. Samus is introduced to the X virus and new ship named "Adam".  
  
2061 - Samus Aran's daughter Lana Aran follows in her mother's footsteps after her tragic death. She teams up with an amnesiac SA-X replicating her mother to once again foil the plans of the Space Pirates. 


	2. Mission Accepted!

Chapter 1 Mission Accepted!  
  
Thick dark clouds rolled steadily over the sleeping valley obscuring the early morning light of dawn. The rain came down in heavy sheets making visibility more then a few feet near impossible. The high-speed wind only drove the rain harder into the ground as it whistled between the village's small huts. Construction sites littered the little village, unprotected and vulnerable to the elements that nature tested against them. The small Chozo village on the planet Amidos had been under reconstruction for the past month after a devastating attack from the Space Pirate force. The already dwindling Chozo civilization on the tiny planet was only diminished even further after the most recent attack. If it hadn't been for Lana Aran and the SA-X, the Chozo civilization would have been on the brink of extinction.  
  
A canyon off in the distance running parallel to the village alleviated the threat of flooding from the relentless three-day rain. The village ditches had already began to over flow and multiple make shift tributaries ran from the village to the canyon. The small creeks of rainwater merged into bigger rivers, which in turn spilled over the canyon's edge creating waterfalls all along the canyon walls. Lightning flashed, illuminating the small radio station sitting on the very edge of the gorge before the thunder crashed, shaking the very windows of the building.  
  
Lana Aran fumbled around with the locked door leading into the building. Her forehead was matted with green hair, and that which wasn't glued down flapped in the heavy wind like a wet whip, lashing out at some viscous invisible animal. The building's overhang mercilessly drenched the young bounty hunter with cold water. Her yellow soaked T-shirt stuck tightly to her body, outlining her figure with every flash of lightning. She finally managed to open the door and quickly slipped inside, allowing the wind to help pull the door closed behind her. A light breeze dashed through the door kicking up the aging dust that was settled on the computer consoles. The rain pelted the windows creating a rhythmic snare drum beat that almost seemed to hypnotize her. She was brought from the harmonic beat when the stirred dust caused her to sneeze. Age lingered in the air and the smell emanated from every corner of the little station. Spiders made their presence obvious with their elaborate array of cobwebs strung about the splintered rafters of the ceiling.  
  
"I'm going to clean this place up one day", Lana said aloud to herself, coughing from the dry environment. She walked over to one of the windows and cracked it open allowing a fresh burst of air to stir around the room. Lana then walked over to a circuit breaker box hanging on the wall and flipped the huge two-pronged switch. With a crackle and pop, the lights inside the station flickered momentarily before brightly illuminating the communication center. The various computer and radio equipment in the room began orchestrating music as the beeps from their startup procedures ran. Eventually, each of the monitors displayed their personalized screens.  
  
Lana took a seat in one of the rooms two chairs, creating a small cloud of dust as she took a seat. She browsed along the desktop looking for something to do while she rested. Taking notice of a slightly opened drawer, she opened it and found a large blue binder lying inside. She pulled it out and blew the dust from the cover before opening it. The title displayed as a logbook and Lana found that it contained printouts of her mother's digital logbook. Lana turned to the latest date in the back of the binder.  
  
Lana began reading aloud; "I have received a transmission from Federation Headquarters confirming that they have lost all contact with one of their bases on Atlass286. The Federation has requested me to investigate the communication loss at Atlass286. Unfortunately, due to my current condition, I am unable to travel that far to investigate and declined the mission. I am beginning to feel weaker in my deteriorating state and I fear the Chozo will have no one to protect them when I am gone. There is only one person that I know of who can take my place and I do not wish to burden her so." Lana closed the logbook and turned to one of the COM consoles in front of her. "My mother told me to take her place before she died and I will finish what she couldn't."  
  
Lana began typing a request for more information on the cutoff base, ending the transmission with her last name only. The Federation was still unaware of her taking Samus' place as bounty hunter, and until she could prove her worthiness, she had to fraudulently use her mother's name. If she could complete a mission for the Galactic Federation then she could come forward with whom she really was. A response quickly arrived after she had sent hers out. The response indicated that the base was still not communicating with Federation Headquarters and with recent pirate activity; no one could go that far out to investigate. Lana replied to their response and told them she would investigate.  
  
The radio station's door flew open and Lana spun around startled by the intruder. A lady's figure silhouetted the door as the rain blew in through the open door. Lightning flashed and the figure was momentarily revealed in the light. Lana breathed a sigh of relief. "By Enode, you scared the hell out of me", she said as the figure walked into the room and closed the door behind her. The woman promptly removed her red shirt and rung the water out onto the cement floor before putting it back on. She then took a seat beside Lana.  
  
"What are you doing?" She asked blankly.  
  
"I was reading some of your old logbook and came across one of these last entries you made in regards to a request from Galactic Federation Headquarters." The woman looked at the young bounty hunter, confused on what she was speaking of. "This happened after your existence, you'll have to forgive me for referring to you as my mother", Lana said. Lana had problems when it came to speaking of her mother to her mother. The being sitting before her was an SA-X who lost its memory and only remembers its victims. Its last victim happened to be the legendary bounty hunter, Samus Aran and this particular X-parasite has perfectly replicated the legend.  
  
"There is no problem, I understand. So what was it that I was suppose to do", the SA-X asked opening the logbook and reading over the last entry.  
  
"I've contact Federation Headquarters and they have confirmed that we can still investigate this problem. They are even willing to pay us for just investigating the base. They have been overrun with pirate activity and don't have any patrols available to check on these poor saps."  
  
"Well money is always a good thing", Samus said reading the dispatcher's response. "When do we go?"  
  
"As soon as I get ready", Lana replied rising from her seat.  
  
"Lets not waste any time then. That a long ways from here."  
  
"I'm going to change and I'll have Adam pick us up from our place." Samus rose from her seat and followed Lana out of the radio station, locking the door behind her. 


	3. Silent Walls

Chapter 2 Mysterious Encounters  
  
The ship hovered silently within the darkened docking bay, its view ports glowing green like some tunnel dwelling predator watching its prey. None of this prey would be found amongst the shattered crates and busted consoles that laid hidden in the dark; only the dead whisper of silence graced the room with its presence. Ice had crusted over the bay's ports, hiding the inner ruins of the station from space.  
  
"Lana?" Adam called.  
  
Lana turned her attention from the darkened bay to the console screen behind her. Adam had a 3D display of the multi-tiered station on the screen accompanied with a few reports on the status of the station. "Sorry Adam, go ahead", Lana replied quickly scanning the screen. The station consisted of four rings, a central structure, and an environment controlled nature facility. Three of the four rings circled the main facility near the middle of the shaft-like structure while the fourth circled the nature facility atop the main structure.  
  
"A preliminary investigation of the space station indicates that all systems for this facility have been shut down. There is no sign of electricity running anywhere. The first thing we need to do is get power running again. The main reactor has been damaged and the backup generators are not responding to the activation signal. They will need to be started up manually." Adam displayed the map for the station, highlighting the room where the backup generators were located. "Make your way to the nature facility. You will find the door leading to the reactor station embedded in the cliffs. Once the generators are up, contact me for further instructions. Is your objective clear?"  
  
Both Lana and the SA-X shook their heads yes. "Good. Indications also show that there has been a struggle. Watch yourselves."  
  
"Do you worry about us Adam?" Samus asked. "You know, I've been doing this long before you were programmed", she said sarcastically.  
  
"I didn't ask for your smart ass comments. Just get it done", Adam replied, a hint of impatience in his electronic voice. Lana giggled slightly as the SA-X mumbled something about taking orders from a computer under her breath.  
  
.|.  
  
The space stations unwelcoming silence was broken by metal footsteps as the two bounty hunters trekked up the pitch black spiraling hallway. Without any useful visors to see in the pitch dark, the bounty hunters relied on their wave beams. By firing at the fluorescent overhead lights, the energy contained within the beam reacted with the phosphor and created a very dim glow for a short period of time. Along their climb, the two came across many areas where dried pools of blood once wet the floor, or smeared blood streaked aguishly across the walls or doors. Nowhere along their circular path did the SA-X or Lana come across a body as they had been expecting to. Lana attempted to open a few doors along the wall but without a steady power source, the archaic doors would not open. Eventually the two came upon the apex of the hallway and found a dead end. Samus used her X-Ray visor to follow a ventilation shaft running up the wall. To her delight, the vent, just big enough for a morph ball, ran up to the next floor. The SA-X pointed to the vent opening and Lana shook her head in response.  
  
Samus rolled into her ball and laid a bomb in front of the vent, and it exploded and sent shards of metal floating into the airless room. The two rolled into the vent and with a combination of ball jumping and bombing, followed the vent up to the next level of the space station. Unlike the previous spiraling hallway, the next area of the facility contained a main stairwell with offices located on almost every deck.  
  
Lana and Samus quickly made their way up the shaft, jumping from one stairwell platform to the other. It didn't take them long to reach the nature facility. Once inside they were able to see the enormous size of the facility. The huge glass dome was cracked and chunks of glass were missing from the structure. Anything that might have once been living was now frozen solid or sucked out into space.  
  
The entire nature facility was like a cemetery in the middle of winter. The forest that spread throughout the facility bared their skeletons as their forked arms reached for space in eerie praise to an unknown being. The grass had long frozen dead brown on the synthesized ground and just walking on it caused the blades to break beneath the bounty hunters' armor. Where a river had once flowed, the dark Red Indian clay now created a dried gulch-like riverbed. Lana and Samus followed the dried river to its source ten miles upstream to a cliff side. The huge stone face rose up to the glass enclosure before thinning out to become what seemed to be one with the dome. A waterfall had been cut into the cliff side and when water had run, the falls hid a staircase that led to a door high up into the cliffs.  
  
The huntresses climbed the metal staircase up to the door and went inside to find a narrow hallway. Following the hallway to the end, the two found the huge reactor core. Upon their investigation, they found that the reactor had been charged to the point of a near fatal meltdown. From their best guess', someone had punctured the cooling system to help release the build up of heat, but in doing so, damaged the core beyond repair. The backup generators were easily spotted and the two separated to work on each one individually.  
  
Within the hour, Samus and Lana had brought all five of the backup generators to operating level. Lights returned to the space station as machines whirred to life and air began to blow through the vents. Lana contacted Adam through the space stations COM link. "We've managed to get the generators running Adam. What now?"  
  
"Good job you two. I've accessed some of the security reports for the station and according to those, there were no unauthorized dockings before the attack began nor was there any hostile activity on the radar. I can only assume with this information that the crew of the station knew the attackers or they had someone help them bypass security. I've tried to access the video surveillance but they use an older system and they will need to be viewed from within the security room. The security room is located here", Adam explained showing the bounty hunters where the room was. "See who was the cause behind the attack and contact me when you have found something. Is your objective clear?"  
  
"Yeah, we'll see what we can find", Samus said before Lana could answer, cutting off the COM link to the ship. "He can get rather annoying at times, always ordering people around", she said irately.  
  
"That's sort of what he was programmed to do", Lana giggled walking back out of the reactor core's controller room. The two headed back toward the nature facility and found that a metal wall had sealed the glass dome off from space. Lana could barely make out a tiny battalion of work drones busily repairing the holes in the glass. Water had slowly begun to trickle down the cliff and puddles had begun to form in the once gulch-like riverbed. Samus led the way through the dead trees and back into the main facility. The lighted stairwell was now able to tell the tortures story behind the space stations attack. Blood splattered the majority of the steps and some had some how managed to reach the bottom side of the staircase. The metal railings were covered in the dark red blood as if someone had sloppily thrown cans of paint around in some sadistic form of ritualistic art.  
  
Now that power had returned to the station, the two bounty hunters could investigate rooms along their route to the security room. As if in some horrid haunted house, blood smeared, splattered, and otherwise drenched almost every inch of every room. Here and there, burn marks could be made out under the coating of blood giving an indication that some type of weapon, probably laser in nature, had been used. Still, there were no bodies to be found amongst the gallons of red liquid and even though the smell of death had long been sucked from the once airless facility, Samus was overwhelmed with the stench of death. She knew what death smelled like, she knew its taste and felt its cold lifeless feeling from her own past experience and it made her sick to realize how many people must have mercilessly died at the hands of these maniacs.  
  
"Do you think that the attackers took the bodies with them?" Lana asked curiously checking a nearby closet for any sign of a body.  
  
"There is no telling. It depends on how sadistic these things were, but it is a big station and they might have dumped them all in one area. I don't really think we will be finding any bodies anytime soon though. We better just go ahead to the security room and check out the video. The sooner we do that, the sooner we can take a break. I don't know about you but I'm exhausted", Samus said realizing how tired and hungry she was.  
  
"You're probably right. The room is just a little further down the hallway", Lana said stepping back out the door and continuing down the hallway. Samus followed closely behind the young bounty hunter.  
  
The security room was the only room that the two entered that there was no blood present anywhere. The consoles displayed status messages on its various screens but the video monitors only displayed static. The space stations PA system beeped and came on over the space station's speaker system.  
  
"All personnel, please be advised that life support systems have reached one hundred percent. The nature facility is under repair for the time being and only authorized personnel are allowed into the facility. Thank you for your cooperation", a computerized voice echoed through the empty hallways, slightly startling the bounty hunters. Samus slowly removed her helmet and Lana followed her example. The two turned back to the console before them and began pulling up the video from the station's last hours of operation. The static filled monitors came to life showing a multitude of people going about their daily lives. Many of the people were dressed in white lab coats or official GFP military uniforms.  
  
"Fast forward until the chaos begins", Samus said. Lana pushed the tape forward until they found something that stood out from the rest of the crowd. One of the monitors displayed one of the lab hallways. Watching closely, one of the doors opened and a researcher was hurled from within the room, slamming into the opposite wall of the hallway. The researcher attempted to get up but before he could rise to his feet, a shot from within the lab took his life. Within the minute a figure stepped out of the room. A blue metal armor clad being walked out of the lab and fired upon the crowd of shocked crewmembers. 


	4. Walls of Pain

Chapter 3  
  
Firepower flew across the darkening hallway creating the effects of a strobe light going off at a party as the lights in the space station began to diminish. The burning smell of flesh stoutly choked the air within the narrow corridor as the crewmembers of Atlass286 ran for their lives screaming in agonizing horror. The space station's mechanical army of repair drones had been turned against their superior beings and they hovered down the hall firing their lasers at the defenseless crew. A few lightly armed Galactic Federation Police officers tried to stop the drones but they were greatly outnumbered and in essence the fire fight between the two forces seemed to be one sided in favor of the massive army of drones. One of the attackers stood out from the rest though. This being was clad in a blue armored body suit outfitted with an arm cannon. The being walked surely down the hall picking off the unarmed and armed without a second glance. This armored being was the cause for all the discord on Atlass286; it was the one that reprogrammed the drones to assault the people on the station.  
  
As if it knew it was being watched, the being walked up to the nearby camera and glared into the lens, its green visor reflecting the fire fight around him into the camera. It raised its arm cannon and shot the camera out, leaving the audience staring at a static filled display. Lana looked over to the next monitor that showed the same corridor from further down, a look of revulsion and disbelief at the merciless slaughterer that so effortlessly strolled through the hallways relieving people of their lives crossed her face. As the being walked closer to the next camera, Lana tapped the monitor glass and sat back perplexed.  
  
"That suit.I thought ours were.", Lana began before taking notice of the shocked expression on the SA-X's face. Samus' eyes reflected a deep sorrow that Lana had never before witnessed, not even in the eyes of her real mother.  
  
"That's.that's Houston's suit!"  
  
"What!?" Lana looked back at the display astounded. "What do you mean Houston's suit?" Lana asked, looking for some type of clarification.  
  
"I never told you he had one. I left your father lying in the tunnels of Zebes after I found him dead. I was going to go back for his remains after I had rid myself of the Mother Brain, but the planet was destroyed before I could make it back to him. He was a bounty hunter.like me", Samus began turning away from her daughter as the tears began to form in her eyes. The memories were painful, even for the SA-X. Though she had only spent a few years with the youthful bounty hunter and their occupations kept them from seeing each other, when the two were together, they were inseparable. After following Ridley back to planet Zebes in a veracious wrath to reclaim the Metroid hatchling, Samus came upon Houston's corpse. The additional distress and pain had sent Samus into a frenzy and she had vowed retribution against the Space Pirate force from that point onward.  
  
The SA-X continued, "Houston and I were very competitive when it came down to who the greatest bounty hunter was. At that point in time, Houston did not have a power suit and the Chozo refused to build one for him. I was stronger then him and he was particularly envious of my power suit and its abilities. A few months later, when I had lost my memories, I was hospitalized. Houston took that opportunity to snag my power suit and construct one of his own using my design and was even able to replicate some of the Chozo's sophisticated technology. In the end, he had managed to recreate one of my earlier power suits. However, he didn't build the armor strong enough and in the end.he proved to be the weakest of us." Samus wiped a tear from her eye before returning her gaze to the monitor. "The only problem with this picture.the suit's color is wrong. When I left Houston's body, the atmosphere had changed its color from blue to silver. This armor is an exact replica of Houston's suit if it isn't the original. It's not the fact that the suit still exists that bothers me, its who is behind this that pulls in the back of my mind."  
  
Lana and the SA-X quickly fast-forwarded through the pandemonium that ensued on the monitors until slowly one by one, the monitors blacked out. The slaughtering had not stopped at that point but there was no video to tell the story any longer. Lana uploaded the video to Adam and waited for there next order. "What do you think happened to the bodies?" Lana asked trying to bring the subject back to its original objective.  
  
"I don't know. The bodies could have been locked into a corridor or dumped into space for all we know. It would be too much trouble to check out the entire station." Samus brought the video feed back up onto the screen and froze it. "Our question is, where did it go", Samus asked pointing to the armored being frozen on the screen. "Who or whatever this thing is, is what the Galactic Federation will be after."  
  
"Lana? Samus?" Adam came on over the COM link. "I have forwarded the video footage back to the GFP headquarters, though they probably already have it. When the station came back online I came across an active radio signal being transmitted to a Galactic Federation Space Station in the Maipass galaxy. If this line was active before the station came under attack, then Tokonto Station, the one in the Maipass galaxy, might have a clue as to where the being went seeing that power was on after all video feed was cut off. We will proceed to Tokonto Station and see if they have any information for us, that will give you ladies a chance to rest and relax while we are there."  
  
"That sounds like a prudent course. We are on our way back to the ship", Lana said.  
  
"Good, I will have our course set immediately", Adam replied promptly before the line went silent. Lana and the SA-X left the security room and quickly made their way back to the ship.  
  
.|.  
  
Adam quickly departed from Atlass286, leaving the blood painted walls and empty hallways to keep their horrible story to tell to others. Upon entering the ship, the SA-X distanced herself from Lana giving the impression that she did not want to be bothered. Lana complied with her silent demands and kept her distance, allowing Samus to struggle with her own memories. Lana occupied herself by taking the power suits to the back room where she could refill the energy tanks and check the status of each suit of armor.  
  
Lana and Samus were both summoned to the cockpit before reaching their destination, Tokonto Station. "I have been trying to analyze data from Atlass286 to determine what exactly the researchers were studying. As you know all to well Samus, the Galactic Federation has a predisposition to try and revive Metroids from extinction, and have successfully done so, in order to try and harness their powers. However, I couldn't find anything dealing with Metroids or the X parasite anywhere. As a matter of fact, I found no information whatsoever on the station. Suspiciously enough, before the station was brought down, a signal came from GFP headquarters requesting all the information be copied to their own servers before the Atlass286 servers were deleted."  
  
"Do you think they were up to something?" Lana asked questionably.  
  
"I've looked up Atlass286 in the Universe Addressing List to try and find a description of the station's objectives. In accordance with the Space Research Treaty of 2020, all research stations have to provide a thorough explanation of their experimentations. This was to alleviate the tension of nameless experiments to be used for war and easy recognition that such experiments as told were being performed and nothing more. It seems that with the discovery of the Metroid species, the Galactic Federations has once before covered up their experiments and that was on the B.S.L station. However; the B.S.L station had the justification of studying the failing ecosystem of SR-388, Atlass286 has no description whatsoever in the U.A.L."  
  
"Interesting indeed", Samus whispered, pondering the string of events laid before her. "As Lana asked, what do you think?"  
  
"My theory? Based on the specifics presented to me, the command to delete sensitive documentation on the experiments is nothing atypical. That would be a standard procedure during an attack, but to entirely wipe out the entire information database AND alter the UAL to no longer describe the station.I think we have another conspiracy."  
  
"That's really none of our business though.right?" Lana asked looking between the monitor screen and Samus. "After all, we were only hired to establish why the station had lost contact with the rest of the universe."  
  
Samus smirked, "My dear child.you still have a lot to learn. Of course, depending on what the cover up is will determine if we should pry any further into this matter. We will have to inquire on Atlass286's objectives when we arrive at Tokonto Station. I have a feeling we've stumbled across something.something that I can yet to put my hand on."  
  
"I'm inclined to agree with you Samus. Something just doesn't seem right with this whole disappearing space station story. Be on your guard." 


	5. Multipurpose Sword!

The hydraulic lifts on the purple ships landing gear hissed beneath the weight of its load, blowing a thick mist of steam into the surrounding docking bay as the twin nuclear turbine engines whined down to a halt. Once settled, a hatch opened beneath the ship and a yellow light flooded the small circle of floor beneath it. A small platform lowered the two occupants of the ship to the ground. As the duo walked forward, their metallic armor clanked on the floor's metal grates, the echoes bouncing off the walls to greet them again and again until they faded into the air.  
  
LCpl, Lance Corporal, Morris held his laser rifle steady, awaiting the order to fire on their newly arrived visitors. Both beings were enshrouded in full body armor, each one of their right arms was equipped with an arm cannon, a model the LCpl was unfamiliar with. There was no hint to identity behind the green tinted visors, but identity would not be necessary, Morris thought to himself. He knew that the being in the orange suit of armor was the legendary Samus Aran, one of the most feared bounty hunters his time had ever seen. The other being in the blue and yellow armor was unfamiliar to him. It was dressed in a more modern and very slender suit, a more form fitting and lighter looking version of what its partner was wearing. As far as Morris knew, Samus Aran was a lone bounty hunter, never to fight alongside another until just recently when rumors had it that the legend had died. The rumors he had heard were obviously not true as the bounty hunter was now standing before him, standing poised as if ready for action, waiting for someone to fire a single shot before she would make her first move.  
  
The man with the hairline mustache and low cropping of dusty brown hair held his position. His hazel eyes locked on the two in front of him; no sign of fear or hesitation reflected in his stone-faced, stern look. His uniform was creased in all the right places, his many medals reflecting the overhead lights while his polished, high gloss boots shine radiantly on the floor. The man's posture was straight and rigid, a sign of strong discipline, demanding respect of those who would stand before him. The major, indicated by the emblems on his shoulders, pointed at the bounty hunters' arm canons.  
  
"Disarmed and checked please", the gruff voice demanded. Both bounty hunters disarmed and removed their arm canons as they were told. "LCpl Morris?"  
  
Morris brought his firearm to his side and quickly marched to his officer's position before standing at attention and presenting a perfect salute, "YES SIR."  
  
"Remove these weapons to the armory."  
  
"YES SIR", LCpl Morris answered. He turned and approached the legend in the armor and extended his hand in acceptance of the weapons.  
  
......  
  
Samus handed the two arm canons over to the LCpl; his arm slightly trembling. His pale face and cautious eyes easily reflected his slight tinge of fear. He quickly stepped back and disappeared through a nearby door. The congregation of officers aimed their laser rifles at the two of them. "It seems you have the upper hand here Major", Samus directed toward the slender commanding officer. She walked a little bit closer and the mass of trigger-happy officers shifted their positions, following her closely in their sites.  
  
"That's far enough Samus Aran", the Major said abruptly, stopping the bounty hunter in her tracks. Lana remained in her position, waiting patiently for the cautious standoff to end. "My name is Major Bradley Thomas and I am the second in command of this station. Let me first start off by saying that your presence is not welcome."  
  
"I couldn't tell...honestly", Samus said waving her hand sarcastically at the surrounding firing squad.  
  
"What are you doing here?" The major asked, his patience waning fast.  
  
"We're looking for some information in regards to a transmission sent from Atlass286. It was the last known transmission from the station and we are hoping that the communication contains some clue as to what happened and where our suspect disappeared to," Samus explained.  
  
"We will only be here long enough to rest up and then we will be out of your hair. We don't wish to impose any longer then we have to", Lana added.  
  
"And who the hell are you?"  
  
"This is my daughter, Lana Aran", Samus said.  
  
"No worries Mrs. Aran, as you will not be imposing on us. Actually, though I may not welcome you here, I do extend an invitation...to the brig", he said spreading an evil smile across his face.  
  
"Excuse me? Under what charges?" Lana blurted out harshly.  
  
"Why the useless manslaughter on Atlass286. I must admit though, it's quite a job blaming such a massacre on a being that doesn't even exist. When you transmitted the video of the suspect to us, and now that I see you have many types of suits", he pointed to Lana, "it's obvious that you are trying for a bounty that in reality is for your own head. Why you could shove any helpless victim into a suit and say they are a cold blooded murderer, but it takes a heartless freak like yourselves to think up such a crazy story and have other people actually believe it."  
  
"THAT'S ABSURD", Lana yelled pulling off her helmet, "We would never kill anyone just because they existed." Lana took a step forward.  
  
"Hold it right there Aran", he replied, stopping Lana in her tracks, "I wouldn't want you to be shot in self-defense now would we? Take them away and have those suits removed and locked up for evidence."  
  
The crowd of Federation officer's detained the two bounty hunters. Lana tried to struggle some, as she didn't want to go down without a fight. "Lana! Stop it! Just co-operate", Samus yelled over to Lana. Lana's eyes dropped in disappointment and she allowed the officers to handcuff her and take her away.  
  
......  
  
After a quick interrogation, which led nowhere, and a change of clothes, the Arans found themselves locked up in a room. Lana walked over to the SA-X sitting on one of the two beds in the small room, and sat beside it. "What are they going to do with us?" Lana asked.  
  
"They'll probably throw us on the next Federation transport heading for headquarters and try us there. We will be found guilty and then sentenced to either, life in prison or more then likely death."  
  
"And we are just going to sit around and let this happen?" Lana glared at the SA-X before getting up and walking over to small port window and looking out to the stars.  
  
"I personally don't plan on staying around much longer period", Samus said spreading a huge grin across her face. She reached under the bed and pulled out a small stick. "I was able to sneak this from the guy taking our armor to the armory." The small stick was really a sword that Samus had come across by way of her then, soon to be, husband, Houston Armstrong.  
  
"Well then what are sitting around waiting for? What do you plan on doing?"  
  
"Just watch and learn my dear Lana", Samus said, winking at the young bounty hunter. "With these old federation locks, if you place a piece of metal in between the door and the lock at just the right spot, you can short the locking mechanism," Samus began. She walked over to the door and extended the sword. With a quick swipe down the crack between the door and the wall, a slight crackle was heard before the red light on the lock turned green, "Like so!" Samus said, then directing Lana to stand on the other side of the door. The door opened with a swish, and slid into the wall.  
  
"What the hell is going on down there?" The guard on duty asked, walking swiftly down the corridor. "How the hell did this open?" He asked as he approached the open door. He cautiously peeked his head into the cell to ensure that its habitants were still present. He was shocked to see only the legendary bounty hunter lying on the bed. "Where's your partner?" He asked walking into the room. Lana, crouching low in the corner, jumped behind him and pistol-whipped the guard with Samus' sword.  
  
"And that's how you break out of a 20th Century Galactic Federation prison cell. Any questions?"  
  
Lana gave a slight giggle and the two crept out into the hallway of the brig. 


	6. Break Out!

Chapter 5 Break Out!  
  
At roughly nine o'clock at night, Cpl Stovall walked down the brig's corridor, ready to relieve the current duty officer of his guard. He casually looked into the Aran's cell and found two bulges under covers, one breathing heavily. He turned and checked random cells for their occupants before making his way to the guard station where an episode of "Mysteries of the Galaxy's" was playing. No sign of the previous guard was found except for a cup of coffee.  
  
The Cpl assumed the guard was in the bathroom and continued on down to be sure. He stuck his head into the multi-user bathroom and called out and received no answer. After checking the vending machines and finding no one, the Cpl began to worry. He walked quickly back to the guard station and radioed his platoon leader.  
  
"This is the brig guard station."  
  
"Go on brig", a voice on the other end crackled.  
  
"Have you had any reports from the brig since the last change of duty?"  
  
"No, we've yet to hear anything at all. I was just about to request a report. Is everything...", but before the voice on the other end could finish, the phone was slammed down.  
  
Moments later the lights in the space station dimmed to a steady red glow and an alarm sounded through the ceiling speakers. Soon afterwards a voice came on over the speakers, "Please be on the lookout for two escapee's...", the voice said before describing the two bounty huntress and ending with the two of them being described as unarmed but highly dangerous.  
  
......  
  
Lana silently crept up behind the armory officer and grabbed him by the neck. The officer tried to struggle but quickly found himself slammed against the wall. Samus brought herself in front of the man and pressed a finger to her lips indicating for the man to remain silent. Lana dragged the officer to the retina scanner and forced his eye open for recognition. The door slid open and the three of them progressed into the armory. At the back of the room, the girls found their suits along the wall. Lana spun the guard around, "I'm sorry...you can't watch." She winked and then knocked the man unconscious.  
  
"We need to try and locate the communications room. They still might have the transmission from Atlass286," Samus said while stepping into her power suit. Lana nodded her head in agreement as she snapped her helmet into place. After a quick check of their systems, the two bounty hunters located a ventilation type line running between the walls. The girls navigated the labyrinth like tunnels, in morph ball form, until they happened upon one of the smaller COM closets. Samus rolled into the room first and uncurled from her morph ball and noticed the guard watching over the many different monitors, each one showing some portion of the sector they were in. Lana followed the SA-X into the room and uncurled from her ball as well. Samus had already begun to charge her beam before letting out a signaling cough to the officer.  
  
The officer jumped surprisingly and continuing to look at the monitor, "Geez Hardy, I really wish you would stop screwing around with me." The man shook his head and spun around in his chair. Once he realized that Hardy hadn't been the one coughing, he tried spinning back around and hitting the big red alarm button on one of the consoles. Before he could get his hand down, Samus released the beam at the button and blew it out of commission.  
  
"No fair cheating in Hide n' Seek", Samus said walking over to the officer. "Maybe you can help us. We are looking for a transmission from a certain space station called Atlass286. Can you recall anything?"  
  
"Wh...why should I help a couple of convicts like y'all", he answered back nervously.  
  
Lana rolled her eyes behind her visor, armed her missiles, and pointed the barrel of the arm cannon at the guard.  
  
"That's one good reason", Samus replied.  
  
"Alri..Al...Alright...", the man replied scared for his life. The man turned around and as he did an alarm sounded as the lights dimmed down to a red glow. The speaker on one of the consoles crackled to life.  
  
"COM 5 come in.... COM 5, I repeat, report in", the speaker spoke. The guard hesitated and the voice called for COM 5 again. Samus brought her missile ready cannon up and aimed it at the guard and pointed to the microphone.  
  
The man flipped the switch on the mike, "This is COM 5...go ahead."  
  
"The Aran bounty hunters have escaped. How does everything look down there in sector five?"  
  
After a short moment the guard answered, "Everything looks good here. Over."  
  
"Thanks. Over and out."  
  
"Good boy. Now...Atlass286?" Samus asked more sharply this time, impatient with the alarm going off.  
  
All I know is that we were to receive information being imported from the station before it was to be deleted. That's all I know...honestly."  
  
Lana walked over to the computer console and connected to it through an interface port on one of the keyboards. "Adam?"  
  
"Lana? It's good to know that you are still alive."  
  
"I need you to hack the system and copy data over regarding Atlass286. Can you do that?"  
  
"Just give me a few minutes here and I can have it. Is the SA-X with you?"  
  
"Yes...Samus is with me."  
  
"Very good. I'm glad to hear that."  
  
A shuffling outside caused the SA-X to take her attention from the guard to the door. "Lana, we need to go," Samus said pointing to the door. A loud banging on the opposite side of the door caused Lana to turn about to. Within a few seconds the door was forced open and a group of five Federation Officers crowded through the door with weapons drawn. "Lana...NOW!"  
  
Samus somersaulted into the middle of the group and before the officers could react, she spun around with a round house and knocked each one back. At that time Lana rolled into her morph ball and navigated through the body of confused officers. Samus and Lana ran through the halls of the space station dodging Federation Officers the entire way.  
  
"Adam...where are you?" Samus called through her helmet.  
  
"I'm located in the docking bay in Sector 4. I'm surrounded by Federation troops though," he replied.  
  
"Just clear us a path. We're coming...and in...quite a hurry...but don't kill...anyone", Samus gasped trying to catch breath as she dodged another officer firing shots at the two of them.  
  
In the docking bay, Adam began firing the twin .50 caliber lasers equipped to the ship. The troops guarding the ship quickly took cover in their nearby environment. Within a few minutes the Arans emerged from one of the hallways and took safe haven within their ship. In a quick few moments, the ship was flying swiftly through the outer reaches of the space station.  
  
......  
  
In a nearby galaxy, a suited figure sat within the darkened room deep within the bowels of a small planet. Since Ridley's demise, the Space Pirate legion had started to fall apart, there was no one who could lead the chaotic pirates into order, until he had come along. Just when the pirates were about to wage war on themselves, this being arrived and swiftly brought fear and order to the benevolent pirates. "I have a proposition for you my friend", the pirate said toward the figure sitting in the dark, a light orange visor glowing from his helmet. "I have this problem you see, and she goes by the name of Samus Aran. I have this taste for revenge and I need you to satisfy that for me. I want her dead. I also want the GFP destroyed. Not normally a one man job, but if Samus Aran can bring a pirate legion to its knees, then I don't see why you, the only one capable of defeating Samus Aran, can't bring the GFP to their knees." The space pirate screwed on a scythe and began walking across the room toward two other smaller pirates, one holding the other.  
  
"Phazon Junkie", the one holding the captive said, "Caught stealing from the storage facility." The bigger pirate removed his artillery cannons from his massive shoulders and laid them against the wall. Omega Nine, the bigger pirate, brought his scythe up to the captive's neck.  
  
"Phazon is in short supply, as well as your life," he replied calmly before a rage boiled in his eyes and he sliced the pirate across the throat. He continued to mutilate the body by ripping the pirate's limbs apart one after the other till nothing was left. The remaining pirate coward back. Omega Nine turned back to the figure. "So will you take the job?" He asked throwing the bleeding torso against the wall.  
  
The figure stood up, the lone dim light along a far wall highlighted his blue armor. His visor seemed to dim and the wearer's eyes became slightly visible, human eyes. A race of people who were weak in themselves and relied mostly on machinery and weapons to do their bidding. He walked slowly over to the smaller remaining space pirate, "You know, you take to much effort to do such a simple job." The being raised his arm cannon and fired a missile at the living pirate. His body was obliterated in an instance. "See how much easier that was," he said, a smile spreading under his helmet. "I'll take the job."  
  
"Good. Your payment will be available after her defeat. What you do with the GFP after that will be as you wish." The being in the blue suit of armor turned and walked to the door and left with his new bounty to hunt.  
  
When the bounty hunter left, Omega Nine thought for a few minutes and then called in one of his troops. "Follow the bounty hunter. I want to make sure he is good on his word. He's heading for Galactic Federation Headquarters. Go...now." The pirate left the omega pirate's presence. 


	7. Stand Off!

Chapter 6

The SA-X sat in a darkened corner of the cargo bay with her head hanging down. The green-lit visor seemed depressed as it shined faintly in the dark. Lana was sitting on top of a cargo box swinging her legs like an impatient child, playing around with various buttons on her arm cannon. The two of them had been told to meet one of Adam's human contacts at Galactic Federation Headquarters.

Lana looked over at the SA-X and smiled beneath her helmet, but she couldn't see her eyes respond with the same happy gleam through the visor, and if she could, she would notice that the SA-X's eyes were pure white, as if rolled to the back of her head. That was not the case; her eyes had lost all color as a strange feeling overcame her, almost as if she had lost her memories again and had them replaced with someone else's. She slowly began slipping into a dream...

_"What is this place? That's me!" Samus thought to herself as she faced a Samus Aran look-a-like. The Samus clone shot at her, blasting her across a space station room. As she hit the wall, her body dissipated into a green amebic form. Before long, her body reclaimed its structure and she fought back against the clone. She grabbed the clone by the throat and pinned her against the wall. She could see the being's eyes behind the green visor, eyes that showed fear, eyes that quivered, eyes that glowered determination. "I've never seen eyes like these." The SA-X thought to itself. "I've never seen eyes reflect so much. Is this life? Is this what separates me from them! There has to be a meaning to my existence! I will FIND IT!" She screamed and threw the bounty hunter across the room again..._

Lana looked over again at the SA-X and found her shivering in her dark corner. The entirety of her armor seemed to be shimmering at a molecular level. "Samus? Samus? Are you okay?" Lana asked hopping off the cargo box and walking over to the SA-X.

...The SA-X's memories shift. She found herself in a docking bay, but not in her human form, but in her X form. She could see all around her. Just down the hall, she could see Samus fighting a Metroid, an Omega Metroid on top of that. Samus was taking a beating by the oversized Metroid. If she didn't do something quick, the Omega would find the SA-X as a nice dessert. She floated over to the Omega Metroid, as her instinct to kill her natural predator began taking over. She reformed into Samus as the original sat crouched, drained from the battle. The SA-X fired on the Metroid with its ice beam, damaging the Omega Metroid. The Metroid lurched forward and swiped at the SA-X and everything went blank.

_The SA-X's memories quickly shifted again to another battle with Samus Aran. This time Samus was running away from the SA-X, trying to keep from getting hit by the powerful ice beam. The SA-X screamed in anger, "Why won't you just die!"..._

Lana shook the SA-X violently, as her screams became louder and louder. Before Lana could react, the SA-X jumped up and grabbed Lana by the arms. Lana tried to pull from her grasp but was unable to. She looked through the visor and saw Samus' eyes were pure white. "What is wrong with you, let go of me!" She yelled at the SA-X. Lana had never seen this side of the SA-X and began to get scared. "Samus...stop please", she whined through her helmet.

_...The SA-X brought the clone up to her face, "I will kill you!"..._

"What are you talking about? I haven't even done anything to you!" Lana cried out as the SA-X started relaying her memories through to the conscious world. The SA-X threw Lana across the cargo bay. Lana crashed into a box, smashing it and its contents to splinters. Lana couldn't take anymore. "I don't want to fight you!"

_"You can't weasel out of this!" The SA-X said firing a missile toward Samus..._

Lana dodged the oncoming missile and fired her power beam at her. The shot was just absorbed by the SA-X, who was now running toward Lana. Once she came within reach, the SA-X reached out and grabbed Lana, wrapping her arms around the fusion suit. Samus' body began to shimmer again and her arms turned into a gelatin form. Lana's suit quickly came to life with warnings that her suit was being infected. The SA-X was trying to infect Lana. Lana had to think fast, she could feel her nervous system slowly shutting down. "Damn it SAMUS! YOU'RE GOING TO KILL ME!" Lana brought her arm cannon up and armed it with a Diffusion Missile. "I'm sorry Samus..." Lana fired the missile and upon impact a radius of six feet was turned into a winter wonderland. The SA-X was blown back by the impact and Lana struggled to keep up with her flying body, as she brought her foot down across the SA-X's chest, dropping her hard into the ground. The SA-X's body returned to normal and the color in her eyes started to fade back in.

The SA-X brought herself to her knees and with bowed head, removed her helmet. Lana found tears streaming down Samus' face, "I'm sorry...I'm so sorry."

"Do you think you can make anymore noise?" A lady said walking across the cargo bay. "You're lucky this facility is just used for storage. What the hell is going on here?"

"It's my fa..." The SA-X started wiping the tears from her eyes and rising to her feet.

"Samus", Lana said, cutting her off, "We'll discuss this later. Okay?" Lana turned to the lady clad in Federation uniform. "Are you?" She asked.

"My name is 1stLtn Roslyn Baker. However, you can call me Ross. I'm the contact that Adam set you up with. How is the old man...I mean, how is he?"

"Adam's fine."

"Adam has filled me in with the details that you both uncovered from Atlass286. It wasn't a lot but it headed me in the right direction. Atlass286, as I'm sure you concluded yourself, was a station used for experimentation. From what I was able to find out through records, Atlass286 was used for studying the X parasite. The only thing they pulled from the station before it was shut down was the study information on the organism. From what I understand, they are going to continue the research at an undisclosed location."

"What about the intruder. I'm not surprised they would be experimenting on dangerous life forms; after all it is definitely not a first. Where did the killer come from?" Samus asked.

"It's unknown. There was no indication of hull breaches to enter, nor to exit, though the station did shut down before the suspects departure", Ross answered. The possibilities of where this intruder originated from are pretty much up in the air. However, radar from a passing Federation cargo ship, indicated at that time, a very small blip heading toward an unknown planet in the same region. That is the only lead we really have and that is where I suggest you start your investigation."

"Why do we even want to continue hunting this bounty if the Federation is only going to apprehend us when we come to collect our dues?" Lana asked, suspicious of the possibility that Ross was playing the two of them.

"If you bring back the body, that would be enough evidence of your innocence."

"That won't work. If the Federation is out to get us like I think they are, then we've already heard from Major Tom that the possibility of bringing in a "decoy" to get out of trouble would not work", Lana explained.

"I will have to look further into that", Ross responded, "I must go now, I've already been missing from my office now too long. Good luck to you both. The back corridor to this cargo bay is empty, as it is only used for emergency procedures, it would probably be a quicker route back to your ship."

"Thank you", Lana said. Everyone nodded to each other before heading back in their own directions. Lana and the SA-X silently walked down the corridor toward Adam, both feeling uncomfortable in the others presence. A crash down the hallway alerted the two bounty hunters, as a lone space pirate fumbled around with a door. A few shots rang out in the hallway and the space pirate turned and began running toward the huntresses. Once he realized that the legendary bounty hunter was in front of him, he stopped in his tracks, frozen in terror. A bustling behind him caused him to turn as a group of three Federation officers came around the corner.

As if things couldn't get any worse, a fourth party arrived on the scene, the being clad in blue chozo-type armor emerged from a nearby door. "What the hell is going on?" Lana yelled over the confusion. The Houston impersonator approached Samus with his arm cannon raised. The scene seemed to stand still as Samus could feel a familiar presence. She had had this feeling the entire time she was at the station but couldn't place her hand on it.

"All of you! FREEZE!" One officer yelled, firing a warning shot into the air. The Houston imposter seemed to look from the Federation officers, to the Arans as if trying to decide whom the better target would be and who would be less of a threat. The Arans, the space pirate, the Federation officers, and the Houston imposter all stood frozen; lasers, arm cannons, and Galvanic Accelerator Cannon pointing everywhere. Everyone was in a standoff.


	8. Ice Caves of Mostok

Chapter 7

Ice Caves of Mostok

In a bizarre twist of freakish craziness, two bounty hunters, a space pirate, an imposter, and three Galactic Federation officers stood at a standoff in the middle of an abandoned corridor at Galactic Federation Headquarters. Silence filled the corridor as everyone stood quietly, waiting for one or the other to make the first move.

"_This isn't going to go anywhere fast", Lana thought to herself._ The Houston impersonator was the first to make a move. In a wink of an eye, the impersonator rolled into a morph ball and dropped a power bomb. With its explosion, everyone was scattered throughout the hallway. Smoke poured through the tight corridor, and coughing could be heard throughout the passageway. Lasers started firing across the corridor and in an instance, the screaming of a space pirate indicated that the poor creature had been destroyed. The smell of rancid burning flesh invaded Lana's nostrils confirming the creature's death.

Out of the smoke, Samus grabbed Lana and began retreating down the corridor, leaving the fighting group to each their own.

......

"Okay. What the hell is your problem?" Lana asked the SA-X.

"I don't know what came over me. My mind just seemed to go blank."

"I'm trusting you with my life out there and you're going nuts on me!"

"I told you...I didn't know what came over me. I was having flashbacks and they seemed so lifelike. I was seeing a battle from my view as well as Samus' view, both at the same time", Samus said.

"I believe the SA-X had a lapse in memory, but what caused that lapse is the question. This could put our mission at a serious risk", Adam said.

"I felt a familiar presence on the station. The same feeling people get when they think they are being watch, except I felt it in my mind", Samus said.

"Regardless, you are a danger to this mission. If this was to happen again...one of us could get hurt", Lana said putting a hand on Samus' shoulder, "...and I don't want to see that happen." Lana turned back to Adam and typed some things into the console. A few moments passed by before a hologram showed up with a map of the galaxy. "According to GFP's radar, an unidentifiable, hunter-class gunship sped away from the station after the incident. The ship's path takes it out of this galaxy, and with its predicted path, past Atlass286. Adam. Set our course back along this path. Our only choice is to pursue."

"Yes Lana", Adam replied.

......

The planet of Mostok lay just in front of the bounty huntress' ship. "We are receiving a weak trace from the gunship, from this planet."

"What can you tell us about this planet...Mostok?" Lana asked.

"There isn't too much information about it. Mostly a rock planet with extreme low temperatures, the atmosphere is toxic with a continuous fall of snow-like precipitation. It is said that there was an ancient civilization ions ago, but to this day, there as been no trace of their existence. Then again, there has never been any active research done on the planet. Just some surface scans from the early years of exploration. There is very little creature life on the planets surface, but beneath it is unknown. The core is very unstable, and volcanic eruptions are frequent."

"Sounds like a nice vacation spot", Samus muttered.

"The signal is coming from an isolated mountain range valley. Due to the climate, I will have to drop you off in the valley and keep a safe orbit. The atmosphere could damage the engines intake thrusters."

The ship descended through the snow and hovered a few feet from the ground. A hatch on the underside of the ship opened and the two bounty hunters descended down the elevator. The snow crunched under the bounty hunters feet as they made there way out of the clearing. The engines began to get louder as the ship slightly struggled to gain altitude and before long, the light from the ships engines faded into the thickening clouds.

The surrounding trees were covered in the toxic snow and no leaves grew on the barren limbs. The bark on the trees was a dark brown, many with black scars running up the trunks. "Looks like this place suffered some type of fire", Lana commented, placing a hand on one tree to look at the ash. Lana stopped and looked around. "You know...this path looks like it was made." Lana looked down the path and back up toward the sky. "It looks like something fell from the sky a while back. Look over here", Lana said uncovering the stump of a broken tree.

"I wouldn't call it unusual. What do you make of it?"

"Well there isn't too much we can conclude about it, but it is an interesting fact that something would survive the atmospheric entry and still be this big upon landing."

Samus nodded her head and the two continued down the path. As they walked the landscape became a little rockier, and the barren trees became few and far between. Before long, Samus and Lana were walking into a very small valley. Low rocky cliffs rose up on either side of them before coming together in the middle. The ledges scattered along the cliff's walls were jagged and covered in snow wherever it could find ground to hold to. The entire valley was covered in cave entrances gaping like monstrous mouths with ice stalactites resembling teeth. From beneath their snowy graves, statues of an unknown civilization lay in ruins alongside the entrance to many of the caves.

"I guess our best bet would be to check out these caves with statues at their entrances", Samus said heading for the cave straight down the middle of their path. "Did Adam specify from where the signal was originating?"

"No. He only said that it was coming from this valley."

"The bad thing with these older gun ships is that their homing signals tend to bounce around when stuck in mountain ranges like this", Samus said. I would say that that signal is emanating from the cave ahead of us, only because some type of falling celestial object, as you said before, created this path. This being could have ran into trouble, and if that is the case, then the ship would automatically send out a distress signal."

"Ok, well then lets go have a look", Lana said as she took a closer look at one of the statues. The statue contained fox-like characteristics and wore a hooded robe, shadowing the expression on its face. Samus and Lana entered the cave cautiously. The sound of running water was barely audible as it lingered up from the caves depths. Small ponds of water littered the cave floor as stalactites from the ceiling dripped melted ice into the still ponds. A low blue green light emitted from some of the ice stalactites.

Samus tapped on one of the stalactites, "That's interesting. This creature was frozen to the stalactite. This creature emits a light from it and with it frozen; it acts like a light bulb as it reflects inside the ice. I wonder if this was an intentional act?" Samus asked as she pointed at various stalactites.

"It's a possibility", Lana replied kicking something up from under the snow. "Look at this", Lana said picking up the object. "Its metallic and...and it has some writing on it."

"What's it say?" Samus asked walking over.

"Hold on, it's covered in dirt", Lana said rubbing the dirt away, "I can only make out atic Feder from it. I assume this is Galactic Federation property, whatever it came off of." Lana swept away more of the snow from the ground and found some marks etched into the rock floor leading deeper into the cave. "It goes down this way."

Samus followed Lana further into the cave until they came upon a wildly flowing river. The sound of the rushing water would have been deafening if it weren't for the helmet's ability to amplify or decrease the extremities of sound. "The marks continue on the other side", Samus said pointing across the tumultuous waters. The two of them space jumped across the wild waters and continued following the marks.

"Lana?" Samus called out. Lana turned around and came back to the SA-X holder her head.

"What's wrong?"

"I have that feeling again." A worried look overcame Lana as she placed a hand on the SA-X's shoulder.

"I don't need you going crazy on me again. Are you going to be able to control yourself?" Lana asked.

"It's not exactly like when I was going after you. This feeling is a feeling of presence, but not in mind...but around us. Let go on."

The two continued on, Lana keeping a close eye on the SA-X. She wasn't fully confident that she could trust Samus with her condition as is. A humongous pile of rock soon confronted the two bounty hunters. "Well the marks go into that", Lana said, pointing out the obvious. "I guess we start clearing", Lana said while scanning the walls of the cave. "Don't fire any missiles though, the walls here are weak from the impact of whatever hit here."

The two began digging out small rocks followed by slightly larger rocks until mid-sized boulders were left. After an hour of hard labor, the two were able uncover the end of a metal box. The scuffed metal became more visible as the rocks were slowly removed. When all the rocks were removed, Lana took a step back to gander at the object they had just uncovered. Around eight feet long and three feet tall, the box had smashed into the cave wall at such incredible speed, the wall around it crumbled and even turned to dust in some areas. "Amazing! An object of this size should have been obliterated upon re-entry in the atmosphere", Lana said wiping away the dust and ash. A figure of a red bird with its wings spread wide was displayed upside down on the box. Galactic Federation was printed in bold blue letters against the gray background. The metal box had landed at an angle in the rocks, bottom-side up.

"Looks like a cargo box of some type", Lana said noticing some more writing, "H.A.2043.7493028", wonder what that is?"

"That's not a cargo box", Samus said taking a seat on a nearby boulder.

"What is it then?" Lana asked walking over to the SA-X and gazing back at the metallic box.

"It's a Galactic Federation Coffin", Samus said.


	9. Truth Be Told!

Chapter 8

"A coffin!? How do you know?" Lana asked walking back over to the metal box.

"This is a coffin used fifteen years ago for Galactic Federation funerals. The code that you just read off are the victims initials, year they died, and the case code", Samus said slowly.

"Will Adam have access to the case code to find out who this was?" Lana asked.

"Probably, but that won't be necessary. I already know who it is?"

"Who?"

"Its Houston's", Samus said shaking her head, "but that's not possible. His body was left on Zebes before the explosion. We held a mock funeral but the coffin was not jettisoned because it would have been a waste." Samus walked over to the metal coffin and slid her hand across the bottom side. "I remember the day Houston asked me to go back to Earth with him."

Lana sat down, sensing a flashback was coming.

"I had taken Houston to an isolated cave lake. It was the most beautiful site I had ever seen. Light shone from a hole in the cave's roof, and refracted off of crystals embedded in the walls and in the waters. It was an amazing site where the water would create shimmering waves on the walls. We were both young and I knew Houston liked me and I myself felt that I had fallen in love with him, but I was afraid to convey those feelings. Once we began talking we decided we would move to Amidos. Ridley and the Space Pirates had disappeared and Houston had managed to talk Old Bird into sending a colony of Chozo to the small planet. Later, Ridley re-emerged and attacked a Galactic Federation space station orbiting SR-388. Ridley escaped and Houston followed him back to Planet Zebes. During that time I was deployed to SR-388 to exterminate the Metroid species from the known universe; unfortunately, at the same time, Houston was trying to take revenge for his last fight. After I finished my mission on SR-388, I chased Ridley down to Zebes after he stole the last Metroid from the Ceres Space Station. It was there that I found Houston's remains outside of Kraid's hallway. I was devastated and infuriated at the same time. I flew through the planet leaving a trail of death and single handedly defeated the Space Pirate menace on Zebes. After that...the planet exploded and was no more. Back at Federation Headquarters, the mock funeral was held and I returned to Amidos to try and rebuild my life."

Lana walked over to Samus and took her hand in hers. "Life is hard when you lose the one you love. You're not the only one who has felt that pain", Lana said slightly pausing before continuing, "We need to check this to see if you are right though."

Samus' head jerked up and Lana could feel the SA-X's eyes stinging through the visor, not in anger but in fear. Neither of the two wanted to turn over the box to confirm their findings but both knew they were going to have to. "There's a possibility that it is still empty too", Lana said helping the SA-X to its feet.

The two of them reluctantly walked over to the death box and prepared to turn it over. With a heavy sigh, the two bounty hunters flipped the box over. The heavy coffin slid along top the un-sturdy boulders before turning on its side. A cloud of dust rose along the edges of the coffin and the lid fell off, spilling its contents over the caverns floor.

The SA-X looked away from the scene as the body of Houston Armstrong fell from its bed, sprawling across a few boulders. His once blue helmet rolling away form the pile of rocks. Lana brought her hand up to helmet, half surprised that a body had actually fallen out. Out of the corner of her eye, Lana caught a quick glimpse of Samus walking away. Before Lana could run down the SA-X, her suit came to life with warnings. The sensors had picked up a X-parasite presence, one besides the SA-X. Lana ignored the warnings and ran after Samus.

"I can't handle this", Samus said as Lana caught up with on now, you've seen a corpse before. You've seen tons more then I have."

"That may be, but seeing your father once was enough for me", Samus said raising her voice. "Zebes was the last place I saw him and I don't need another image of his corpse haunting my dreams. I just can't do it! How would you feel?" Samus asked rhetorically.

"How would I feel? I'd feel like shit. You forget, I've gone through similar events. I had you die in my arms for Enode's sake! Ok! Sure I didn't know my father. All I know is what you've told me and that sure the hell wasn't a lot", Lana yelled back before calming herself, "I'm sorry."

"No need to be. I'm the weak one."

"Stop that. You're not weak."

"I am. Besides you and the Metroid hatchling, Houston knew the most about me. Our relationship was my weakness. When I lost your father, my world fell apart around me."

"I'm going back. I had some type of warning when we flipped that coffin over. Are you going to come back with me or not?" Lana asked.

"I can't...I just can't."

"I understand. How bout waiting for me on the other side of that river we crossed earlier?"

"Alright", Samus said walking up the tunnel. Before the SA-X went out of site she stopped and turned back towards Lana. "Thank you Lana."

Lana nodded her head and turned. She walked back to the pile of rubble and stopped just in front of it. She took a breath and sighed loudly. The thought of seeing her father's corpse didn't bother her too much. She had never known the man they called Houston Armstrong and had only heard very little of the man. To her, this corpse would be just like any other, except she would hold this one in a much higher respect. Lana walked around the rubble and gazed upon the body of her deceased father. "So you are my dad?" She said walking up to the corpse. Lana's suit immedietly began warning her of the X presence. "First things first", she said arming a diffusion missile. She fired the missile to the left of the coffin and a field of ice took shape as the missiles explosion expanded.

Lana bent down to examine Houston's corpse. Houston had been jettisoned in his body armor, the gray primer of the suit was all that was left of the lustrious blue finish it once had. The less durable parts of the armor suit had withered away to nothing, showing the decomposing skin and bone beneath it. This was mostly around the joints of the suit. Houston's skull was almost completely decomposed with the exception of some discolored leathery skin around the cheekbones and long stringy hair falling over his shoulder pads. Frost from the diffusion missile stuck to the body like a frozen Popsicle fresh from the freezer. Lana carefully took a sample of skin from Houston's skull and placed it in tiny tube located on her free arm. Once she placed the tube in the armor, the suit began analyzing the skin sample. In a quick few minutes, the suit came to life warning that the skin contained massive amount of X infestation. The amount of time the body had been infested was undeterminable by the suit. Lana tipped the coffin back on it's bottom to the best of her ability. The metal box was extremely heavy for just one person even with an enhanced suit of armor. She carefully placed the remains of her father back in the coffin. She took one last look at the corpse.

"I wish I could have found out what kind of person you were. It's a shame the thing we are all fighting for is what takes us from the very ones we love. I sometimes wonder what it would be like to live a normal life. Destiny has a path for us all I suppose and those paths sometimes end rather abruptly for some of us. Though we may think of these things as wrong paths, without those paths we would be lost in the woods. In the end, all those paths end in one place." Lana pulled the metal lid over the coffin and using her plasma beam, easily welded the coffin lid back on. She tapped her hand on the top of the coffin one last time, "I love you daddy."

Lana began walking back up to the riverfront and stopped as she could feel someone's eyes watching her. She turned and called out but received no answer.

......

Lana found Samus sitting upon one of boulders next to the rushing river. She stood beside her mother. "You OK?" Lana asked.

"Yeah...I'll be fine. What did you find?"

"It was his body according to the DNA scan. His body was infected with the X parasite but it couldn't tell me how long he was infected. Adam should be able to pinpoint the time of infection. I think we should head back and see if we can find any other leads. We might be able to get something from this but I doubt it......Samus?" Lana said as she noticed the SA-X staring back down the tunnel. "What is it?"

"He's...He's here."

"Who?"

Samus raised her cannon and charged it. She released the ball of energy calmly and it flew down the corridor slamming into one of the ice stalactites. The energy from the beam temporarly lit the areas around it and with that dim light, an blue armored figure was brought into view before fading back into the darkness with the light. Lana armed her cannon and steadied it at the figure. Samus continued sitting, calmly watching the figure approaching.

"Hallo ladies", the blue armored figure spoke to their surprise, its voice coming out with a slight hint of an earth Australian accent. The figure stood motionless across the river from the bounty hunters. He seemed unthreatening, his arms crossed in front of his chest. "Samus love", he began, "I've missed you." Samus began shaking violently on the rock and Lana placed her free arm on the SA-X's shoulder, keeping her arm canon trained on the blue armored being.

That's the end of this chapter....I've started a C2 community, "The Best Of Metroid" let me know if you wanna join. Write me for details and please leave a quick review.


	10. Prelude To The End?

Chapter 9  
Prelude To The End?

The sound of rushing water echoed through the cave chamber in a raging fury, the riverbanks covered in a low mist where the water met the rocks; the type of mist that only dampens the legs below the knees. The tiny particles of water flew around in the air wildly trying to find an object to cling too. The mist was prejudice toward nothing, collecting on everything before it became to heavy for its own weight and slipping back down along the surface of whatever it had clung too.

The SA-X was sitting on a boulder along the riverbank, shaking violently. She had broken into a heavy sweat and if she hadn't been suited up, the brisk breeze that began blowing down the cave would have easily made it a cold sweat. The wind howled slightly lower then the water as it blew between stalactites creating sounds like that from an old church organ. The eerie howl giving an ominous atmosphere to the bounty hunters current situation.

Lana stood armed and ready to fight the Houston impersonator. She quickly took in the surrounding area, taking note of possible spots to take cover in if the fight turned really ugly. She continued her train of thought by accessing her weapons. They both had about twenty missiles on them and of course a various assortment of beams and bombs. Lana spoke calmly to Samus, "Samus. Pull yourself together. Just tell yourself that it is not Houston, just an X-parasite impersonating him."

"I know that, but how does that make me any different. In reality, I'm not Samus Aran. I'm just another X-parasite impersonating her", she replied, her voice quivering on the edge of cracking. "You pretend to like me, but you don't. You only see the Samus Aran in me. That's not me. I'm an X too and it's a fact that I have to accept. I mean, if he can so mercilessly slaughter an entire space station then what keeps me from doing that?"

"Why are you talking like this? The difference between it and you is that you have a heart."

"I don't have a heart! I have a fabricated collection of gel pretending to be someone else's heart. The organ that beats here is fake", she said pounding her chest armor, "it isn't mine. My feelings are not my own, they belong to someone else."

"You're wrong. Regardless of who or what you are, it is your choice on how you perceive and act on the feelings of others. You don't have to be like Samus, you choose to be like her because it makes you feel good. You know if you acted like that thing over there," Lana said pointing toward Houston, "You know what kind of pain that gives because Samus felt those pains before and you don't want to be the one to administer such pains needlessly."

Samus dropped her cannon and turned to the SA-X. "You are who you want to be. Whether you remember yourself or not doesn't matter because you will be who you truly are."

"I hate to interrupt you lasses...", Houston began, "But we've never met before. That suit looks much more advanced then mine, and though I don't care too much for the design itself, I'm sure it would be a great addition to my wardrobe. Samus? Are you going to introduce us?" Samus had jumped off of the boulder and stood beside Lana on the riverbank seemingly back in her senses.

Lana stepped forward, saving the SA-X from having to speak if she had wanted to do so. Lana sized up her opponent, noting closer now the striking resemblance to Samus' power suit. The biggest accomplishment that she could deduce herself was the fact that someone had even been able to replicate the complicated science of the gravity suit's abilities. These were things that the human race had yet been able to accomplish on their own. The detail taken in creating a perfect replica of Samus' power suit was well reflected in this mock opponents attempt. "My name is..." she said before stopping herself, knowing full well that Houston never knew she existed. Telling this imposter who she was could make her a vulnerability if the SA-X was put in a situation where it was either her or Lana, but on the other hand, Lana could hope that this Houston X would maybe feel something for someone related to her. She decided she would risk it, "My name is Lana. Lana Aran," she said confidently, striking one of her signature poses just for the hell of it.

Houston laughed a little, "So love, you decided to go on and find some other man after my demise huh?" Houston said rubbing his free hand behind his head.

Lana spoke up again, "Actually...I'm your daughter...daddy."

"Pfft", Houston sputtered, "an offspring from me. I never would of thought it. Regardless, you two seem to have quite a bounty on your head for the massacre of that space station. Money I could use to fund my own little campaign."

"What the hell are you talking about", Samus managed to mumble, forcing her to confront her dead spouse.

"Oh it's nothing big. I'm just planning a crusade to wipe out the Galactic Federation. It's high time some one took those political pigs out of control, and besides, the space pirates are paying a pretty penny for it."

"How could you work for them, especially after what they did to you?"

"I'm not working for them, I'm merely collecting a little bit of money from them before I collect my share from the GFP." Lana cocked her head sideways in confusion. Houston continued, "It seems the GFP not only wants you gone, but of course the space pirates. I'm just ridding each others of the other and collecting my fees as due to me."

"You're a filthy, heartless being", Lana said, "and we're going to do everything we can to stop you." Houston let out a hearty laugh and then dropped the act and stood at a battle stance, ready for the oncoming bounty hunter.

"Why are you helping her anyway", he added, directed the question toward the SA-X. Samus just slightly shook her head, ignoring the question and preparing for the battle herself. Lana began charging her arm cannon and a small sphere of energy began growing at the end of her cannon. It stopped at about the size of a basketball and shined brightly about the cave, lighting up darkened corners as the light from the charge bounced from stalactite to stalactite. "Well then lasses, lets begin", Houston said charging the two-bounty huntress'. Lana feinted right, Samus left, and as Lana tumbled to the ground, she came up on one knee and fired her charged shot at the ceiling of the ice cave. The light from the charged beam left a trace trail behind its path momentarily before smashing into the ceiling. The ice-covered ceiling immediately began to hail chunks of ice and water down on the group; a huge mist enveloped the cave making sight close to impossible. Lana activated her X-Ray visor to see what was going on around her. She could make out Samus rolling along the ground as the Houston X shot at her without intention of aiming. All of his shots seemed to miss the SA-X but just barely. Potholes from the blasts caused Samus' morph ball to get stuck here and there for a moment before she was able to bomb herself out.

It was a frenzy of chaos in the corridor of the ice cave with bombs going off and beams flying around aimlessly. The ancient cave seemed to handle the stress of the constant bombardment easily; though a slight moaning from the walls indicated that it would not be able to handle too much more. The mist had begun to settle back down and when visibility had returned to the cave, the fighting was stopped. Houston had managed to roll up to Lana and grab her by the throat. He now held her up as she struggled to breath; warning lights flashing all inside of Lana's helmet. The SA-X was grasping her arm about three feet to the side of Houston, a huge gap missing out of Samus' arm cannon arm's armor, her flesh barely visible beneath her free hand which covered the wound in pain. "No more playing around lasses. This is where you die", Houston said clenching Lana's throat and causing the lighter armor around her neck to start collapsing. The SA-X let out a scream; inhuman to anything Lana had ever heard. Samus rushed Houston, smashing into him hard enough to drop Lana and hit a nearby stalactite. Lana came up to her knees coughing up blood and grasping desperately at her throat. She could see Houston and Samus exchanging blows in hand to hand combat, but the Houston impersonator seems quicker and eventually he was able to put the SA-X in a full-nelson hold. Lana tried rushing at Houston, but he saw this coming and dropped the SA-X. In a blur, Houston's leg came full body and placed his foot across Lana's head, sending her spiraling into the rushing waters of the river.

Lana could hear Houston laughing evilly and saw him walk over to the wounded SA-X before the waters covered her, throwing her about in the waters like a rag doll. No matter how hard she tried, Lana could not find anything to grasp on to and was left to the mercy of the raging waters. Water began flooding into the suit, sending her body into a shivering frenzy as the freezing waters began filling around her. During her torrential ride, she was thrown against boulders of all sizes, riding below the waters as well as being thrown into the air as the river dropped into small waterfalls. The rapids showed her no mercy and she could feel the armor slowly crushing her as more rocks pummeled the suit. Upon hitting one of the rocks, her eyes began to blur and between the pain of the crushing armor and freezing waters, Lana could take no more and gave in to the sleep that called to her. As her eyes shut, she could feel the water slowing down a little and the sound of the water slowly drowned away into nothing.


	11. The Fox Creatures and Lana

Chapter 10

The Fox Creatures And Lana

The once raging waters had now slowed down to a calm crawl, flowing peacefully out of the mouth of a small cave. Mountains dotted with leafless trees rose up on either side of the river creating majestic walls of protection for the river. The stagnation of water along the edges of the river mixed with the freezing temperatures creating a slush of ice along both sides of the bank. Lana's unconscious body floated atop the water face up like a dead log, making a trail of moving water through the slushed ice. The river finally widened about 100 feet across and the mountains drew farther back, giving room for a field of snow. Amongst the barren white field of snow, a small group of five creatures roamed about as in search for something, nosing around in the cold toxic snow. They were covered by brown robes and there faces hidden under large hoods. Slightly mutated looking hands covered in red fir shifted back and forth as they walked around on all fours, a bushy tail following closely behind each one. One stopped in its tracks and shifted its head into the wind, picking up the scent of something it had never before smelled. The others stopped and they all shifted their gaze toward the river where they saw a shiny object floating down the river.

In what would be, to a normal human, a great feat, the creatures went from walking on all fours to balancing themselves on two feet, their robes fell down along their red and white fur covered bodies and slightly rustled in the breeze. One of the creatures hood fell back from its head revealing an almost completely fox-like face. Its nose was not quite like that of a foxes as it was a little more snubbed and the ears were not as big, barely sticking out from the top of its head like little triangular satellite receivers. The creature's eyes were black, but not an evil black, a black that reflected curiosity and concern. Its eyes were marked with white fur around them, creating a mask like appearance on its face. The being immediately covered its head back up and tied the loose hood down with a little string, its hands were closer to paws but the finger-like appendages allowed it to grasp things easily. The creatures changed their route to intercept the floating object in the water, their trail of prints in the snow shaped oddly human-like without toes but small claws.

The creature that had picked up the unusual scent led the way to the riverbank and watched intently as the odd shaped object floated toward the slushy bank. The five creatures sat back on their haunches as Lana's body bumped against the edge of the soft bank and swayed back and fourth. The creatures exchanged glances, as they seemed to realize that what lay before them was a being, yet a being they had never before encountered. The creature that seemed to be leading the pack brought out one of its hands and tapped the creature to see if it would stir; the others were back to their feet prepared to flee if the creature awoke in a stubborn mood. The body of Lana Aran just bobbed in the water and feeling no threat from the unconscious being, the creature grasped Lana by the neck and pulled her up onto the snowy bank, the water falling off the armor causing the snow beneath her body to melt away, revealing frozen brown grass. The creatures surrounded Lana's body and one by one they nudged the unconscious being until they were sure she was either dead or incapacitated from the cold. One of the braver beings noticing the clasps on Lana's helmet carefully snapped them off and slowly removed the helmet.

The creatures seemed to gasp in awe as they gazed upon Lana's frozen face, her eyes were frozen shut and the color had run from her lips, leaving them a dull grayish blue. Her cheeks had sunk to the bone and turned a pasty off white while her hair lay in a bun, frozen to the top of her head. The creatures looked at each other in confusion and began talking amongst themselves in a language of tongue clicks and whining. Again, the creature that had discovered Lana's body carefully placed its hand-like paw on her throat and through the sensitive pads on its palm, it could feel a very light heart beat. The creature took Lana's arms into its own and with help from one of its friends, carried Lana toward one of the mountains where some dead trees hid the entrance to one of the mountain's caves.

......

Lana's eyes slowly opened but all she could make out was a blur; her voice wouldn't work for her and she struggled to sit up. Someone pushed her back down gently and she could make out a series of clicking noises coming from the beings direction. Lana's mind was rushing, trying to remember the last thing that had happened to her. She could remember seeing the SA-X being approached by the Houston parasite and then she had been pulled under the rapid rushing river before she had blacked out. Her body felt like it was on fire and she lay still, cooperating for the time being with whoever was holding her down, as they didn't seem to be harming her; she could only make out a blurry orange figure leaning over her. The smell of lavender seemed to fill the air and Lana began feeling something soft carefully massaging her legs and chest. After a while, Lana's body began returning to normal, only her fingers, nose and toes felt like they were going to burn off of her body. Her eyes had slowly begun to clear up and she could make out a few of the features of the being in front of her; it was trying to test her vision by moving its finger from side to side. Lana resisted following the creature's finger, as she didn't want them to think she could see straight when really she couldn't.

"Wh...", Lana tried to speak but her voice came out in a cracked gasp as her throat closed in on her. She tried gasping for air and when she couldn't breath she began clawing at her throat in a frenzied panic. One of the fox creatures ran over to the table and shoved a slimy tube down her throat, while the other held back Lana's arms, the other pushing the tube through her enclosed esophagus. Oxygen flowed through the tube and Lana settled down as she began breathing easily again, relaxing her body again as the creatures continued massaging her body. Lana slowly slipped back into sleep as the fox creatures began rubbing another layer of oil over her body, the inflammation in her appendages slowly transitioning to a light tingle.

Lana awoke again, this time her vision was clear and she was surprised to find herself laying on a bed and looking up at a mirror reflecting light from some unknown source. From the rock structure, Lana could see she was inside a cave, but the inner walls had been carved smooth and there were no lines in the wall indicating that the structure had been built. The wall was covered with drawing; similar to the ones Lana had drawn as a child, with creatures with unrecognizable body parts and weird writing covering what would have been white space. Lana slid to the edge of the rock bed covered with some type of feathers and swung her legs out over the ground. She carefully tested her stability and tried standing, holding on to the edge of the rock bed for support. Though her legs were a little clumsy, she could manage walking over to the wall for a closer examination of the art. It was then that she noticed that her armor had been removed and looking around the room, she could see no sign of where it might be. The only feature in the room was the cave entrance, covered with a long grass curtain to act as a door. Lana studied the symbols and didn't recognize anything, the drawings showed what appeared to be a bright light at the middle of a cave and a tribe of fox looking creatures stood around it with their hands held up toward the ball of light. She placed her hand on the wall as if expecting something miraculous to happen, but nothing of the sort did, the wall only greeted her with a cold hard surface.

Lana heard the grass curtain pulled to the side and she spun around to see one of the fox creatures peek its head in. When it saw Lana was up, it pulled the curtain completely back and walked into the room on two legs, as expected, Lana cautiously pressed herself against the wall. The creature motioned to the bed and Lana shook her head yes and took a seat on the bed. The creature then attempted to communicate with Lana, moving its tongue around its mouth creating a series of clicking noises. Lana lifted her hands halfway into the air and shook her head no to indicate that she didn't understand the creature. The creature turned to a slab of rock hanging on the wall and produced a piece of chalk-like material from behind it and wrote some symbols onto the tab. Lana looked at the tablet and didn't recognize any of the symbols and shook her head no. The creature cocked its head in a questioning manner and looked at Lana curiously. Lana went over to the creature and asked for the stick of black chalk and the fox creature handed it over, eager to see what the creature before it was going to write. Lana first wrote her name in English and under her English name she wrote her name in Chozodian. The fox creature scratched out the English and circled the Chozo writing indicating that it understood Chozodian.

Lana then drew a picture of a Chozo on the tablet and handed the chalk back to the fox creature and pointed to herself, then at the Chozo, and then brought her hands into a mock shake to try and indicate she was Chozo friendly. The fox creature in return pointed at the Chozo, then itself and followed with the mock handshake. It looked between Lana and the Chozo drawing and as if deciding that Lana was not a threat, it pointed to itself, the Chozo picture, Lana, and then ended by extending its hand toward Lana. Lana stared at the creature momentarily before lightly grasping its hand and enclosing it with her other hand, giving it a light handshake. The creature brought its lip up into what was assumed to be a smile and walked out of the room.

The creature came back with a few others of them and this time wrote in Chozodian on the tablet. Lana could make out very little of what they were trying to write and it was like trying to read a child's handwriting as it was learning; she could make out that they could not read or write Chozodian very well. Lana frowned a little and then smiled, taking up the chalk and writing out translator. The creatures looked at the word for a minute before deciphering it. Lana herself was not fluent in the ancient language of the Chozo but she knew enough to get by if the need was to arise; she looked back on the many instructions Scint had given on the language. Most Chozo had lost the old language, conforming to a new age of Chozodian language and only the most isolated Chozo tribes continued to use it before they disappeared.

One of the creatures disappeared and within a few minutes re-appeared with a little gadget in its hand. It offered it over to Lana, and after looking it over, Lana could see that it was a translator, she eagerly put it on expecting to be able to speak with the creatures in her own language. When she spoke in English, the gadget only whined and the fox creatures looked at each other in confusion before replying. The reply translated into the ancient Chozo language and she could understand a little of what they were saying. Lana knew she had to get up with Adam if possible and find out what had happened to Samus. She pronounced the word suit in Chozodian and the creatures shook their heads. Again, one of the creatures left and in a few short moments it returned with a friend, each one carrying pieces of her dismembered fusion suit. Lana frowned for a moment and rumbled through the pieces before finding what she was looking for, the suit's transmitter. She tried to turn the device on but she could see that battery acid had leaked from the back, indicating that the once useful device was now dead. She held up the transmitter and said power into the translator. The creature at the front of the group nodded its head and took the device from Lana; it beckoned her to a corner of the cave.

Lana followed the creature over to the corner and showed her a hold in the ceiling where light was shining down and bouncing off of a mirror and up into the one above the bed, creating the light that lit the room. The creature placed the transmitter on the mirror and told her to turn it on. Lana fumbled with the transmitter for a few minutes and to her amazement, the transmitter began working. She quickly removed it from the mirror and it turned off. Lana smiled again and placed it back on the mirror and watched as the device beeped back to life. Lana thanked the creatures and then asked to be taken outside. The fox creature shook its head no and said it was dangerous, but when Lana asked again, the creature waved at one its friends who handed Lana its robe. Lana put the robe on and covered her head with the hood; she could feel something wash over her body and it made her a bit uncomfortable but she did not complain. She followed the creature out of the cave and into the snowfield.

After waiting for a half hour, a high pitched whine echoed through the valley and from over the top of one of the mountains, Adam flew down into the field, using his thrusters to stop his descent and resting a few feet above the ground before the landing gear on the ship came out and supported the ship as the engines whine down. The fox creatures watched on amazed at the ship that had landed in their little field, the snow beneath the ship had melted away and the brown grass and dirt showed beneath the ship. The underside of the ship opened and the elevator came down, but much to Lana's dismay, no SA-X was there to welcome her back.


	12. The Kossbass Knew Who?

Chapter 11

The Kossbass Knew Who?

Lana and one of the fox creatures sat around a table on Lana's ship; Lana was tinkering with the small translating gadget the fox creatures had given her. Though she couldn't understand Chozodian as well as she should, she knew she could get Adam to make the translator work between English and the fox creature's language. Lana placed the device in a little box and it buzzed to life, the glass front revealing a small laser cutting away at the translator. The laser stopped and a green light came on indicating Lana could remove the device; the creature with her watching gawk eyed. Lana put the translator on, "Can you understand me now?" She asked, the little gadget creating a series of clicking noises and whines. The creature looked back confused, obviously not understanding a word the bounty huntress was saying.

"Let me reload the program, maybe it will reset the communication chip. I'm also going to load on a different translation program; this time an older version and one that might contain their language", Adam said. With a few quick commands a few minutes of waiting, the translator came back to life and she tried again. "Can you understand what I'm saying?"

The creature nodded its head and replied, "Yes!"

"My name is Lana Aran", she said holding out her hand in friendship.

The creature replied, "I am Langheart. It is nice to finally be able to communicate with you Lana Aran." The creature reached its hand out and shook it firmly, "You know of the Chozo?"

"I am the daughter of Samus Aran, a human who was transfused with their blood by orders of Old Bird, one of the tribal leaders of the Chozo."

"Old Bird", Langheart said more to himself then anyone else, throwing the name around in his head, "He was one of the tribal chiefs when our two tribes use to communicate with each other."

"He is no longer alive", Lana said.

"We are sorry for your loss."

"Lana, what happened to you", Adam asked her. Lana began her story, starting with the cave and ending with her waking up in the cave with the fox creatures.

"What happened to the SA-X?" Lana asked when she finished her side of the story. The thought of where Samus was had been tugging at the back of her mind the entire time; she worried for her safety.

"The SA-X is missing Lana. When you both disappeared into the cave, I lost both of your transmitting signals. I did; however, find that a very small craft left the planet but there was no indication that the two of you were in it. I began to worry when that ship went by and I locked onto its transmitter frequency; we should have no problems tracking it down. I decided I would wait here for a few days in hopes that one of you would begin transmitting again, and the only reason I decided that was because I found traces of beings in a valley, but not knowing the advancement of their technology, I wished not to interfere. It was on the third day that I picked up your faint transmitter and was finally relieved. I had hoped that the SA-X was with you, but that obviously is not the case", Adam recalled before asking a question to the fox creature, "What is the name of your people?"

The creature responded promptly, "I am of the Kossbass clan." A few commands scrolled on one of Adam's many console screens before a likeness of Langheart came on screen.

Adam read, "The Kossbass clan is an advanced civilization much like that of the Chozo. They tend to use technology only to make life easier on them. There civilization is thought to be extinct but according to history, their technology has taken them farther into the universe then anyone has yet to explore. The Kossbass do not normally wage war unless prompted by opposing threats; the tribe of Kossbass' have no enemies and declined the offer to join the Galactic Federation as did the Chozo and for the same basic reasons."

"That is a very accurate description. Yes it is true our clan has diminished slightly, but there are still a great deal of us left. We are only a small group on this little planet, sent here to watch over our sacred ancestral grounds. We use to hold conference with the Chozo and our scientists worked together for some time, that is until the Chozo made plans for their destruction."

"What are you talking about?" Lana inquired confusingly.

"The Chozo made plans to create a creature that could harness energy...", Langheart started but Lana cut him off.

"You mean their "ultimate warrior" the Metroid?" Lana asked. The Kossbass shook his head yes. Lana sighed, "I know all about that. My mother spent the majority of her life trying to destroy the species and in the end, what tried to once kill her, saved her life. We both have the DNA of Metroids running through our blood as well."

"So they did manage to create that thing. We stopped communicating with them after they made their decision. We did not want to endanger our people with such a dangerous creation. Though we did not leave with bad relations, we have not heard from them since that time. Many of our older clan members remember a time of great enrichment when we traded technologies with the Chozo and many of their weaponry was spawned from plans similar to ours."

"So was the power suit one of the deviation from your plans?" Adam asked.

"Possibly. We do possess a type of power suit and it is likely they perceived the idea from us, but I do not recognize the technology of the suit itself."

"I see", Lana said, "You may recognize Samus' suit better then mine. My suit was built by duplicating the technology from the Chozo's. Samus' suit had been infected by a parasite and had to be surgically removed from her body; unfortunately for her, the suit was also tied to her life systems and when she awoke, she found that the Galactic Federation had built her a suit much like hers; the suit you found me in", Lana explained.

"Speaking of your suit", Langheart said, "I believe we have completed repairs on it. Though the material is not readily available here, we implemented our own metal and recovered what we could from yours", the Kossbass turned and called over one of its friends. "Go and bring me the power suit please", Langheart asked before turning back to Lana. "You will find that we've also added technology of our own to help you out." The Kossbass came back in the room with the suit of armor. The Fusion suit was no longer blue and yellow like she had been so accustomed to. It now shone brightly like a new piece of equipment, its glittery silver finish playfully shining light around the room. The oval-like areas that use to be yellow, now dark blue matching the steel were still there, but they transitioned with the suit better, giving a more aerodynamic feel. The suit itself was no longer as slender as it once was, but was a little more bulky, and the helmet had been redesigned with a new respiratory system and the helmet actually matched the slenderness of the suit. "We successfully replicated the abilities that were already implemented into the suit. We've also added a powerful homing beam; the wave beam doesn't quite lock on, as it should. The homing beam is an electrical beam much like the wave beam, but it locks onto the neurological readings of any being that has a thought process. If you are shooting at an inanimate object, it will fire in a straight path."

Lana removed the robe she had been wearing to reveal her jump suit; the blue had begun fading from the fabric when it was exposed to the harsh waters of the river. She slipped her legs into the power suit and could feel the suit adjusting to her body. She moved around the cabin of the ship and commented, "This feels like it responds slightly faster then before."

"Yes it should, our chip technology has always been slightly more advanced then that of the Chozo's and during battles, you should be stronger. We used a different set of physics when calculating the human to suit power magnification abilities. Heavy weights, falls and blows shouldn't jar you as badly as it use to", Langheart replied, "but that doesn't make it invincible by any means."

"Adam. I need that lock on the ship that left this planet. I have a feeling that the SA-X has been taken by this Houston X-Parasite", Lana said and then turned toward Langheart, "Langheart. I cannot thank you enough for your hospitality and help. When we finish with this vile life-form, I am going to return to claim my father's corpse."

"Lana Aran, the Chozo have put great faith in the hands of a being other then their own, and I am more then sure they are proud of your heroism. Please, be not a stranger to us for together, we can rebuild what were once two great civilizations. May the strength of our two civilizations grant you the power to resolve this evil." Langheart offered out his hand toward Lana who grasped it in return.

Lana waved at the Kossbasses as they exited the ship and began walking back to the safety of their lairs. Lana waved from the bottom of the elevator before the disk of light enshrouded her and rose up into the bottom of the ship. The thrusters immediately began to rev up and the rush of air from beneath the ship blew away the surrounding snow creating a miniature blizzard that engulfed the ship from view temporarily before it rose above the cloud of whirling snow. Once a few hundred feet in the air, the main engines fired up and the ship blasted out of orbit, leaving the remnants of its exhaust snaking along the sky like a snake, illuminated in bright pink as the setting sun barely shone through the fading ever present clouds.

Onboard, Lana instructed Adam to pull up the coordinates of the escaping ship; the computer did as asked and within a few quick minutes, a familiar name came across the screen. "Atlass286", she murmured to herself, recalling the recon that Samus and her had done; the images of blood stained walls and stairwells still vividly fresh in her mind. _What is so important about Atlass286?_

"Lana. I just intercepted a transmission from a nearby Galactic Federation battleship. It appears that they are currently engaged in a battle with the Space Pirates, and oddly enough, this escapade is taking place at our destination. Will you be lending assistance to the Federation?"

Lana thought for a moment. Her last two encounters with the GFP had resulted in imprisonment and a short battle. Someone, or something was against the bounty hunters and she replied to Adam, "No. I think I will let the Federation deal with their own problems."

"Your main objective then is the possible retrieval of the SA-X and the disposal of the HA-X?"

"That is correct. I am going to try and keep from crossing their paths which shouldn't be to big of a problem", Lana said locking her arm cannon into place as the ship approached the space station.

"I have a lock on the ship as well as multiple locks on space pirate ships and Federation ships. I will dock in the cargo bay, there are no ships located there and its probable that no forces from either side are there", Adam said bringing the ship around to the bottom of the multi-tiered space station.

"Atlass286...this is where this all began and I hope this is where I can end it."

"Good luck Lana. If you need anything, let me know."

"Very well Adam", Lana replied as the ship landed within the cargo bay.


	13. Lana vs' the Omega Pirate

Chapter 12

"The space station seems to be up and running at 50 of its capacity", Adam said as Lana activated the elevator, "you should have no problems with doors or elevators. The GFP have already overridden the entire security system upon their arrival. I can't pinpoint the exact location of all their units, they have a scrambling device in use; one newer then my last upgrade."

"Alright, that should be enough to get me by. Keep me up to date on any information or transmissions", Lana said as she boarded the circular disc of energy and descending into the cargo bay. Remnants of cargo boxes littered the floor of the cargo bay; the splintered mesh of wood and metal had been blown apart from one end of the bay to the other. A few cargo boxes here and there threw their shadows high on the walls as the bays low white lights swung calmly about from the change in pressure. Lana quickly made her way out of the bay and began her trek up into the space station. She wasn't sure where the HA-X might be, but she planned to head to the security room to see if she could track down where the being could be.

Bloody streaked covered walls lined both sides of the corridor as if some young child had taken a bucket of red paint and ran down the corridor playfully spreading the thick liquid, leaving handprints every few hundred feet. The floor was filled with pools of dried blood and there was still no sign as to where the bodies of the victims might have been. Lana followed the hallway she was in until she reached the intersection to another corridor that would take her to the stairwell that led to the security room. Her suit's sensors picked up a slight disturbance in a large room just before the stairwell and as she approached the door to the stairwell, the wall to her left began to pound.

Lana quickly somersaulted back as the wall to her left blew apart in pieces and the body of a Galactic Federation Officer slammed into the opposite wall, streaking blood down as his body fell limp on the floor. Two other officers backed out from the exploded wall firing their laser rifles back into the room. The one closest to Lana yelled over to his partner to retreat and the two turned and stopped in their tracks as they came to face Lana. "Shit. Lt? Lt, the bounty hunter is here to! Please advise." The officer on the COM link was aiming at Lana as his partner covered their back; from the hole in the wall another two officers fell back through, one bleeding from the arm severely.

"I don't want any trouble", Lana said, her arm cannon poised for action as she slowly back peddled to the nearby hallway intersection. The other two officers noticed Lana and immediately took aim.

"Roger that sir," the COM officer said, ignoring the bounty hunter's comment and yelling, "the bounty hunter too!" The other officers split into two groups, two firing back into the hole in the wall and two opening fire on Lana. Lana managed to somersault backwards toward the intersection and disappear around the corner before any real damage could be done to her after a few of the laser shots nicked her armor. She inspected the armor and found just a slight burn mark on one of her shoulders, but none of her suits energy had been depleted. Lana could make out the sound of running footsteps coming toward her as the troops gave chase to her; she quickly turned around and ran back down the hallway.

......

"Sir. There is no sign of the bounty hunter. Do you think she split?" One of the troops asks his superior.

"I don't know, but I have a feeling she's still around. Keep your eyes peeled because I here this little lady can hide in some tight spots, and watch yourself around ventilation ducts", the officer responded, taking an aimless shot at one of the slatted vent covers hanging above the ceiling, creating a smoking hole just beneath one of its screws before the small group of troops continued down the corridor.

Lana sighed in relief as smoke from the recent laser shot clouded the small confines of the ventilation duct as light from the corridor below filtered through the small opening creating a beam of light in the smoke. With the troopers now gone, Lana popped open the vent cover and rolled out and landed on the floor, making her way back to the security room, being extra careful going through the corridor of the space station.

After a few detours around some random fights between the two opposing forces, Lana finally made her way into the familiar security room. Many of the monitor screens still displayed the static that Samus and herself had left them, while others displayed empty blood soaked rooms or the various fights the Galactic Federation were involved in. Lana noticed that on one particular screen, the lights had been dimmed down and a couple of figures could barely be made out. Of the two, Lana could make out blue shoulder pads on one, she tapped the glass and said, "I've got you know Houston."

Lana went back out into the hallway and backtracked to a ventilation shaft down the corridor. Rolling into a morph ball, Lana popped herself up into the ventilation system and began rolling along, keeping her radar tuned to both the direction of the vents and movement around as she didn't want to be caught in a vent in a room that was occupied by one of the two forces. Lana figured if she could use the electrical systems like a map, she could follow the wiring using the least amount of electricity consumption to find the room that Houston was in. The Federation Troops stationed here before the slaughter undoubtedly knew the station like the back of their hands, as she never came upon one map of the place. According to her sensors, there were a few places completely without power, but those didn't matter, she was only interested in the lower powered rooms.

After much hunting and inspection, Lana came upon a room occupied by two people; one of massive girth and the other hidden behind a suit of armor. She rolled toward one of the slatted vents and listened in on what was going on.

"You have tricked us!" Omega Nine said, raising his hands up in disgust, his shoulder turrets arming themselves.

"I am merely trying to make a living. Besides, I am giving you an opportunity to prove your leadership to these mongering space pirates. I've also brought you the bounty huntress. Isn't that what you wanted?"

"I wanted YOU to destroy the huntress."

"Kill kin? You must be crazy, I wouldn't dirty my suit with that worthless blood", Houston said mockingly, noticing a sound from the ventilation shaft. "Besides, I think you would have a time trying to kill her yourself", Houston quickly turned toward the air vent and fired a missile. Before Lana could respond, the missile blew a hole in the thin metal and she fell to the floor, sprawling out of her morph ball as she landed. "Omega Nine...meet Lana Aran, daughter of Samus Aran, legendary bounty hunter."

Lana brought herself up to her feet and faced the mock bounty hunter and his friend. Omega Nine's shoulder turrets slightly turned toward the bounty huntress and began speaking, "Your mother caused us many problems and you have also had your share of troublesome interference in our business."

"Well I'm sorry we couldn't meet under better terms", Lana said sarcastically, her mother's witty attitude seemed to be surfacing since the SA-X's arrival into her life. Lana directed her next comment toward the HA-X, "Where's the SA-X?"

"There there now", Houston began, mocking the voice of an old cowboy, "that little lassie has already been taken care of. N' lemme telya, she weren't no eazn one to handle neither." Houston imitated himself firing at some invisible being.

"NO!" Lana shouted.

"Omega Nine. Now is your chance to prove yourself. Take care of this for me", Houston said flicking his hand toward Lana. The HA-X turned and began making his way toward a door and Lana gave chase, but before Lana could make it to the door, the massive space pirate came between her and Houston.

"You're actually going to listen to him?" Lana asked.

"I'll deal with him later. You are my biggest problem right now", he said slamming his humongous fist into an open palm.

"Whatever", Lana muttered as she prepared to battle the monstrous pirate. The Omega pirate wasted no time in attacking and quickly dispatched a few missiles from his shoulder turrets. Lana easily dodged the concussion missiles and responded back with missiles of her own. No sign of damage could be seen after the impact of the missiles and the pirate began lumbering towards her. He raised his arms into the air and with his hands locked together; he slammed his fists into the ground. Bands of dark energy began rippling from the epic-center of the makeshift quake and Lana found herself falling to her knees as the ground shook violently beneath her. Rivets from the metallic floor began shooting from their homes, ricocheting off the ceiling and walls as the floor began to crumple at the site of the pirate's impact.

The pirate fired more missiles from his shoulder turrets and this time they hit their mark. The shield in Lana's suit was able to take the brunt of the impact but at a high cost; an entire energy tank, one of nine, had been lost in the explosion. Lana racked her brain, watching the pirate for his next move when it dawned on her. She waited for the pirate to be firing another round of concussion missiles, and when the pirate started the sequence, Lana charged up a diffusion missile and fired at the turrets. Upon the diffusion missile's explosion, the missile launchers had been frozen over, but the missiles still burned in their tiny shoulder mounted silos. With nowhere to go, the missiles exploded in their own heat and from that explosion, more quickly followed from the missiles neighbors. Lana tore her eyes from the blinding light of the explosion and when she looked back, the Omega pirate's arms were no more. Both arms lay in bloody pools at the pirate's feet, green fire licking at what was once his shoulder turret. The pirate screamed in agony and fell to his knees, two chunks of his upper body had been torn from him and blood ran freely from these large wounds. Lana quickly took care of the pirate and dispatched another diffusion missile at his head, and when the ice particles parted, the pirate lay dead on the floor, his head a fractured mess of frozen skull and metal.

Lana gave chase to the HA-X and exited the door where he had left.


	14. FaceOff!

Chapter 13

Lana entered the geo-dome, an artificial nature reserve set at the top of the space station. The HA-X had left a clear trail toward the facility and she now walked carefully through the huge open door. An artificial wind blew from between the dead trees in the nature dome creating eerie moans that one might find in a cemetery on a breezy fall night. Stars twinkled above in the dark dome, flashing on and then off like a string of crazed Christmas lights. Since the bounty hunters last visit, the ground had thawed out and the crunch of dry dead leaves crackled from beneath her feet. Off in the distant, Lana could here the roaring sound of the once frozen waterfall. She imagined the water falling and pounding relentlessly on the cliff wall before dropping into the basin below, sending up a mist of water that left a layer of dew on its nearby surroundings.

Lana followed the HA-X's trail through the dead forest, tracking him by the deep footprints his armor left in his wake along the muddy path. The small trail the HA-X left was a maze of twists and turns and before long she found herself at a dead-end and looking out into the emptiness of space. She could make out chunks of trash and debris floating around the station and far below she could see the docking station where Adam had dropped her off, a moment that seemed to be far in the past.

A stick snapped behind her and she turned with a jolt but was greeted by nothing but the eerie breeze and the darkness of the path she had taken. An evil laugh echoed around her and she immediately armed her cannon, preparing for the appearance of the HA-X. The only appearance she received though was a few dead leaves swooping by on the breeze, dancing around each other as they floated by. Lana walked the length of the domed wall, heading toward the direction that the roaring water was coming from; she was slightly comforted with a wall on one side, she wouldn't have to worry about anything attacking her from there. Another snap, this time higher in the trees caught Lana's attention and she instinctively shot in the direction of the sound.

"Come on out!" Lana yelled toward the tops of the trees, scanning the area around her too find nothing but bark amongst the tree limbs. She returned to her normal visor and as she turned to continue walking the wall, a missile from the side blasted toward her. She reacted to late and was hit in the leg by the blast; she screamed in surprise and fell to one knee, firing aimlessly toward the direction from which the missile came. Lana returned to her feet and quickly made her way toward the river, eyeing the surrounding trees suspiciously, looking for any sign that the perpetrator was still around. She could feel someone's eyes on her as she crept along the soggy ground and she soon found herself backed into a clearing running along side the riverbank, the waterfall roaring ever louder behind her. Lana could just make out the hazy mist that floated from the waterfall through the darkened trees. Yes the darkened trees where now she noticed a figure crouched, watching her every move, sitting silently and motionless in the tree. She fired a shot again and this time the watcher leapt from its perch on the tree branch and landed in the lighted clearing, his armored boots sinking slightly into the ground, arm cannon poised for action.

"It's about time you found me. I was right under your nose the entire time Lana", the HA-X said charging his cannon.

"Well if you would have came out and fought like the man your imitating and not the low level slimy scumbag that you really are, then we wouldn't be having this conversation. Instead I would have avenged the death of someone close to me, reveling in my victory."

"Awfully confident aren't we?" The HA-X asked in reply, "Especially since the SA-X isn't even dead."

"What!" She yelled, "Where is she? Tell me or I'll beat the ever living hell out of you!"

"My lassie, you sure are a feisty one; reminds me so much of your mother, but fear not Lana, you shall not have to beat anything out of me because I'm not gonna touch you. I'll leave that to the SA-X", Houston dropped his arm cannon and backed up, allowing Lana to see for the first time the SA-X sitting up in another tree awaiting her introduction.

The SA-X somersaulted down from the tree and landed in the dead grass field, one knee in the grass, her free arm supporting her on the raised knee. Samus' arm cannon sat angled partially up from her thigh and aimed slightly higher then Lana's head; her own head looking down at the ground. Samus raised her head slowly, bringing her green visor up into view, Samus' face was barely visible behind the green visor, but Lana could see no emotion in its eyes. "Why are you doing this Samus?" Lana asked but received no response from her former partner; she only stared at Lana before slowly rising to her feet.

As if under someone else's control, the SA-X began firing her power beam at Lana who easily dodged out of the way and returned warning shots of her own, "I don't want to fight you Samus. Why?" The SA-X continued ignoring the bounty hunter's comments and fired more shots at her. Lana flipped up into a nearby tree and was thrown back to the ground as the tree branch splintered from the missile the SA-X had dispatched. "Samus. Do you know who I am? I'm your daughter. Why won't you listen to me?" Lana asked, rolling to her side to evade a kick from the SA-X.

"No use trying to talk to her", Houston said appearing at the edge of the clearing, "I've brainwashed her. She is nothing more then a tool for my disposal."

"Shut up," Lana said, firing a diffusion missile in Houston's direction. He nimbly dodged the ice attack and sat perched in a tree watching the battle silently. The SA-X began charging toward Lana, and Lana fired a diffusion missile into the ground right in front of her. Samus slipped on the frozen ground, sending her flailing by Lana who brought her foot around and planted it into the SA-X's chest, dropping her flat on her back. The ice cracked beneath the heavy armor and Samus gasped for air as Lana's foot connected again, this time against her throat. Samus spun around on her back, bringing her feet around and planting her hands into the ground as she forced herself up off of the ground in a break dance style move and while still on her hands she brought her foot across Lana's helmet causing Lana to stumble backwards. The SA-X flipped to her feet and readied for more action. Lana switched to her newer version of the wave beam and fired a few quick shots; the SA-X attempted to dodge them but was soon surprised to see that the weapon now homed in on her. The attack seemed to jolt the X and Lana shot a few more.

This time the SA-X brought out her sword and protected herself by intercepting the beams before they hit, the electrical charge running down the steel blade giving it a temporary purple glow before dissipating into nothing. Samus began charging at Lana again, this time the sword high above her head, ready to bring it down on Lana. With nothing to protect herself, Lana raised her arm in an attempt to defend herself, just in time as the blade clanged on the suits metallic armor, sending out a fireworks display of sparks like flint on steel. The blade slid down Lana's arm, marring the surface of the suit but doing no real damage, and right into Lana's hand. Lana grasped the sword and wrenched it from Samus' hands and flung the sword away, much to her dismay. Samus responded by bringing her arm cannon into Lana's gut and blasting her back with her own wave beam. Lana cried out in pain as the electrical current ran through her body, and soon the smell of burning hair invaded Lana's nose, and she could feel a hot sensation in her legs as the pain intensified.

The SA-X rolled back into a morph ball and planted a power bomb, staying in the form until the explosion passed; Lana had just enough time to get into her own morph ball, barely missing the dangerous explosive radius of the power bomb. When she rolled back out of the ball, the SA-X was already out firing her wave beam at Lana again; she fought the pain in her legs and somersaulted backwards toward the waterfall. Samus stayed close on her heels, speeding through the clearing toward Lana at breakneck speed. Lana turned to run and shot her grappling hook out toward a tree limb and used it to propel herself over the river where the waterfall met the water. The weight of her suit brought her down to soon and she had to recalculate her landing to land on one of the rocks in the middle of the river. Lana landed on the rock, but the slippery rock brought her feet from beneath her and she fell back into the water, which engulfed her in its torrential waters. Her mind was instantly flooded with memories of the raging river that ran through the cave on Mostok. Lana swam backwards toward the opposite bank and found the SA-X waiting for her. Samus shoved her foot into Lana's face, pushing her back into the muddy waters and though the suit held, Lana's memories started to convey a sense of fear in her.

Houston had followed the fight and was now sitting on one of the boulders protruding from the cliff that the waterfall flowed from attentively watching the fight between the two bounty hunters. Lana grabbed for Samus' foot and when she was able to find it, twisted it around and sent the bounty hunter into the water with her. When the two rose from the water, they were locked in arms, each of the other trying to lift the other and had it not been for the power magnification of Lana's suit, the SA-X would have easily taken Lana. To Houston, this all looked like a great wrestling match and he sat and watched with excitement. Samus managed to unlock herself from the tangle of limbs and brought her arm cannon to Lana's face and at point blank range, Samus let a missile fly. The impact sent Samus back into the river and Lana flew back, rolled on the ground and stopped, sprawled like a dead dog in the middle of the road. Lana came to, pulling at the latches that held the helmet to her suit. The visor had been cracked, and the metal had fallen off in small minute pieces at the point of impact. Lana was blind inside the helmet; the visor displayed nothing but static and warning messages of limited oxygen.

Within the blind helmet, Lana didn't see the SA-X rise from the water and fire more missiles at her. When they exploded around her she was sent again sprawling to the ground. Lana covered her vulnerable face with her hands before trying to remove the helmet again; this time successful in her attempt. As the helmet came off, the SA-X was on top of her again, throwing punches into her gut and kicking her in the thighs. The helmet came off and fell to the ground and the burnt and bleeding face of Lana emerged into the light. The SA-X instantly stopped her attack and backed off; Houston watched alarmed that his tool was now thinking. Tears streamed from Lana's eyes mixing with her blood and flowing down into her suit, a huge gash above her right eye bled profusely. "You see what you're doing to me", Lana said weakly, pulling the armored glove from her free hand to wipe the blood from her brow. "Why are you doing this? Why are you trying to hurt me? Don't you remember what you said in the cave? Don't you remember what made you different from that monster right there"; Lana yelled pointing toward Houston who was becoming a little uneasy.

"Lana...", Samus started, "Lana...I can't help what I am."

"Bullshit! You can't accept the fact that you're two beings in one. You don't want to fight who's right anymore and you know it. That's your problem. You better come to terms with that or you are going to end up killing me, your daughter", Lana said wiping even more tears from her eyes.

"You're not MY daughter."

"Yes I am", Lana cried walking over to Samus. Samus began backing up slowly but Lana cornered her by the river and wrapped her arms around her. "Pull yourself together mom...please," Lana pleaded looking through the visor into the SA-X's eyes, catching a quick glimpse at a glimmer beginning in the corner of one eye. Samus dropped to her knees wrapping her arms around Lana.

"What have I done," Samus said, a muffled voice came from behind the helmet.

"Enough!" Houston said, jumping down from his perch on the cliff and breaking the two up, slinging Lana away from the SA-X and into a tree. Lana crumpled into a heap, exhausted from the battle. Houston turned to the SA-X and punched her in the helmet. "Finish her damn it. Go ON!" He yelled at the SA-X.

Samus slowly raised her arm cannon to Lana who was sitting with her back against the tree, her face a twisted torment of pain, fear, and anguish as she fought to get up. "I'm sorry Lana", Samus said raising her arm cannon and aiming toward Lana; Houston crossed his arms in approval awaiting the blast from the arm cannon. Tears ran down Lana's cheeks as she squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the end. There was a blast and small chunks of rock hit Lana in the face; when she opened her eyes, Houston lay on the ground in shock.

"What the hell!?" Houston screamed arching his back in pain.

"I'm not going to hurt the ones I love anymore", Samus said walking over to Houston and kicking him, his body flipped over on the ground. Houston turned over and fired a shot from his arm cannon; the wave beam went through Samus' suit and she yelped at the shock. Houston rose to his feet and fired more shots at the SA-X; unfortunately, the SA-X was in a weakened state and had trouble dodging the oncoming attack. Samus took heavy damage from the attack and stay crouched low to the ground to help keep her balance.

"So you think you can just change sides again? You miserable piece of trash, you call yourself an X parasite? I think you need to be put out of your misery", Houston said arming his cannon for a missile. Samus looked up at him and flung her left arm out, sending out her grappling beam. The beam latched onto Houston's armor and she yanked him towards her. The power suits crashed together with a sickening thud, but Samus now had the upper hand. The SA-X had managed to interlock her arms and legs around Houston who struggled to free himself from her grip.

"LANA!" Samus yelled toward the tree. "Shoot him! NOW!"

Lana, now leaning on the tree, brought her arm cannon up and tried steadying it with her free arm but her aim was shaky as her arm quivered. "I can't. I'll end up hitting you to."

"Just do it Lana."

"LET ME GO YOU WHORE!" Houston squirmed more viciously now and Samus' grip started to weaken on the more powerful HA-X.

"Damn it Lana, just do it!" Samus tried to tighten her grip back up and managed to successfully lock her arms again, "I don't know how much longer I can hold him."

"No, I can't do this. Do you realize what you're asking me to do?" Lana asked dropping her arm cannon.

"Lana", The SA-X said, all of Samus' emotion flowing vibrantly in her voice, "You told me to come to terms with myself. I can't change what I am, but I can change who I am. I'm your mother and I realize this is hard but for the sake of the galaxy, this must be done."

Lana gazed at the struggling pair in front of her, her mother and her father, together in the most ironic way possible. She sobbed helplessly now, fighting the voices in her head telling her what she needed to do and what she didn't want to do. She raised her head and looked at Samus and silently lipped, "I love you."

Though Lana couldn't see behind Samus' visor, she knew that the gesture had been returned. A glow appeared at the end of Lana's arm cannon and with all her will, Lana fired the weapon. The grass before Lana caught fire as the fully charged plasma beam ripped across the forest.


	15. Final Ceremonies

Chapter 14

_Back On Amidos_

Lightning flashed high in the sky revealing the multiple layers of clouds lazily floating across the valley before disappearing over the top of the mountain range. The light smell of rain drifted across the valley basin as the water gently fell from the sky, creating a shimmering haze far on the horizon as the heat from the sun had earlier warmed the valley. Small puddles had formed in various locations from the quick downpour that passed by overhead and now only the slight patter of stray raindrops could be heard on the top of the tent. Lana knew that in a few short minutes that the valley would be engulfed in a humid heat and she wished the ceremony would come to an end.

"Even after her death, the embodiment of Samus spirit lived within the most unlikely host whose transformation from evil to good showed to us that no matter what you are, you don't have to live by the standards others place you at", Scint said talking to the small crowd of Chozo and a few Kossbass sitting beneath the tent. Scint, a Chozo and tribal leader on the planet of Amidos, Lana's home world, continued his eulogy. Tears had dried in Lana's eyes over the past few minutes, but as Scint continued talking the endless stream of salty water that ran from her eyes could not be stopped. Lana had to live the death of her mother of again and the pain was too much to bear as she sobbed helplessly into a tissue.

Scint finished talking about the late SA-X saying a prayer with everyone aloud, Lana mumbling the prayer from memory and not for the feeling; her mind was tracing back the events of the day before. Scint turned to the single coffin holding the remains of Houston Armstrong; the Kossbass had been kind enough to detain and destroy the remaining X-parasite within the corpse before transferring Houston's body to Amidos for a proper funeral. Lana flashed back to the battle between the SA-X and the HA-X.

_"LANA!" Samus yelled toward the tree. "Shoot him! NOW!"_

_Lana, now leaning on the tree, brought her arm cannon up and tried steadying it with her free arm but her aim was shaky as her arm quivered. "I can't. I'll end up hitting you to."_

_"Just do it Lana."_

_"LET ME GO YOU WHORE!" Houston squirmed more viciously now and Samus' grip started to weaken on the more powerful HA-X._

_"Damn it Lana, just do it!" Samus tried to tighten her grip back up and managed to successfully lock her arms again, "I don't know how much longer I can hold him."_

_"No, I can't do this. Do you realize what you're asking me to do?" Lana asked dropping her arm cannon._

_"Lana", The SA-X said, all of Samus' emotion flowing vibrantly in her voice, "You told me to come to terms with myself. I can't change what I am, but I can change who I am. I'm your mother and I realize this is hard but for the sake of the galaxy, this must be done."_

_Lana gazed at the struggling pair in front of her, her mother and her father, together in the most ironic way possible. She sobbed helplessly now, fighting the voices in her head telling her what she needed to do and what she didn't want to do. She raised her head and looked at Samus and silently lipped, "I love you."_

_Though Lana couldn't see behind Samus' visor, she knew that the gesture had been returned. A glow appeared at the end of Lana's arm cannon and with all her will, Lana fired the weapon. The grass before Lana caught fire as the fully charged plasma beam ripped across the forest._

_  
_The flashback played like a broken record in Lana's mind causing her to sob more heavily now. The flashback continued with the events right after that final blast.

_The two X parasites screamed in unison as the plasma beam engulfed them in flames; the agonizing screams of pain and anguish echoed through the domed nature facility. Lana tried to cover her ears in an attempt to block out the tormented screams but the armored glove and arm cannon did little too nothing to help. Lana closed her eyes tightly to shut the scene out but still the brightness of the flames burned through her eyelids. In a matter of seconds, the screams died and the brightness calmed till it was nothing and when Lana opened her eyes, to find two X-Parasites floating where the bodies of the SA-X and the HA-X should have been. As she came closer to the free floating forms, Lana's suit came to life, glowing with a mysterious aura and as if entranced by the light, the two parasites floated toward Lana, circling the suit of armor. The aura suddenly grew brighter and engulfed the two forms and then disappeared taking the Xs with it._

_Lana flinched, as she was flooded with the memories and emotions that once filled her mother and her father. The entire lives of her two parents flashed before her eyes, going from each of their first memories, Houston's death, Lana's birth, Samus' Death, and on and on; as quickly as the memories came, they disappeared. Lana fell to the ground in exhaustion, trying to take in what had just happened when it came to her. The Xs had been taken in by the suit and now Lana would have to live with the memories both her parents had, a burden and pleasure to her at the same time._

Lana was nudged back from her flashback as Scint finished his eulogy, motioning for Lana to take the podium to say something. Lana walked up to the platform and looked momentarily at the statue waiting to be placed over the grave. They would lay Houston to rest beside his wife and the statue that once marked Samus' grave was destroyed and a new one erected. This statue showed both Samus and Houston posing heroically, Samus on one knee and Houston aiming his arm cannon at some invisible enemy. Though the rock faces hidden behind the mask wouldn't show any emotion, their stances yelled power, respect, and devotion; each one of the mourners present knew these qualities to be true.

Lana turned back to her fellow mourners and began her eulogy; the rest of the ceremony went on normally. The end of the ceremony was marked by the burial of the casket with Lana dropping the first handful of dirt onto the coffin, a hollow thud emanating from the hole as the dirt fell on it. Each mourner followed behind and did the same. Scint brought up the rear and again led everyone in prayer, asking their great god Enode safe passage of their souls into their new life.

Finally, Lana pulled a lever on a machine behind the statue and with a rusty roar, the statue was slowly pushed over both grave sites, majestically protecting the body of Houston Armstrong and the Protector of the Chozo, Samus Aran, legendary bounty hunter, for the rest of eternity. The inscription on the statue read in Chozodian, _"From the ashes of destruction a savior was born, guided by friends and lover, protecting the galaxy with devotion and loyalty till her death. Now she sleeps in eternal peace alongside Houston Armstrong, the man she called husband. In Peace Samus Aran._

Lana stayed behind as she waited for the guests to begin leaving, holding conversations with a few of the mourners before they left. Langheart was the last Lana talked with, walking with him toward his ship, "Thanks for coming Langheart", Lana said.

"No. Thank you. You have finally brought us back into communication with our old friends the Chozo", as he said this, Scint walked over and shook Langheart's hand. "I am glad we can now communicate freely between us Scint", he continued turning to the Chozo.

"Please, we have much to discuss", Scint said leading the Kossbass toward one of the huts. Langheart turned back toward Lana one last time and offered a wave, which Lana gratefully returned.

Lana found herself sitting with Adam, swiveling around in her pilot chair, the bearings squeaking slightly as the chair spun around. Lana paid little attention to what was going on around her and began zoning out when Adam spoke up, "Lana."

"Hmm?" Lana responded absently.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be there for the memorial", he said trying his hardest to process the emotion of depression but very unsuccessfully.

"That's okay Adam", Lana replied.

"Since you first swore to avenge your mother's death, I have observed your growth from an angry young girl, to a mature and respectful woman and I am proud of you. I know it doesn't hold the same meaning coming from an electronic circuit board but you remind me of your mother and I am glad that I can be a part of this team."

"Thank you Adam", I wouldn't have been able to do this without your help.

"My optic sensors are picking up sunlight outside. Would you like to see?"

"Not really", Lana replied staring blankly into the black screen.

Adam ignored her answer and brought the view screen to life. The mountains ran along both sides of the valley, an enormous canyon was visible to left, a canyon that had proved the SA-X trustworthiness not so long ago, it's depths hidden beneath the shadows of dusk. The humidity had begun to subside and the grassy field that stretched to where the mountain ranges came together sparkled with the setting sun. Shadows stretched across the valley from the west, reaching toward the eastern mountains. Lana found herself staring at her parents grave, the sun had just started dipping low enough to cast dark shadows along the statue. Slowly the sun moved below the horizon and the statue fell into complete darkness; the sky painted in a awesome array of color before turning to dark purple.

"And so the sun sets for another", Lana murmured to herself.

"And will rise tomorrow for others", Adam replied.


End file.
